We are closing this live blog now. You can stay up to date with all the latest developments on our continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic below.
Summary
Here’s a quick recap of the latest coronavirus developments from the last few hours.
- The United States exceeded 6m coronavirus infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. It currently sits on 6,009,899, with 183,258 deaths. The milestone comes amid rising infection in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
- India’s former president Pranab Mukherjee died after testing positive. He was 84. Mukherjee had emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain on 10 August at New Delhi’s army hospital research and referral after suffering a fall. The hospital said he had tested positive for coronavirus after the surgery and his condition was critical.
- France’s new Covid-19 infections shot up by 50% in August. France saw its highest monthly tally since the beginning of the outbreak earlier this year, while hospitalisations for the disease seem to be creeping up again.
- The United Arab Emirates recorded more than 500 daily Covid-19 infections, the highest number over a 24-hour period in nearly two months. The Gulf Arab state has reported 541 infections and two deaths, the highest since 683 cases were recorded on 5 July.
- The World Health Organization urged governments to engage with people demonstrating against Covid-19 restrictions. Asked about recent demonstrations in a number of countries, the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said it was important to “listen to what people are asking, what people are saying”.
- Russia neared 1m known cases, the fourth worst nominal caseload in the world. The country reported 4,993 new cases on Monday, bringing its nationwide tally to 995,319
- Australia has reported a record daily toll of 41 deaths from Covid-19, all in the state of Victoria. The southern state has been gripped by an outbreak that prompted a strict, stage-four lockdown. The Victorian Department of Health confirmed that 33 of the 41 new deaths were aged care residents who had died in the weeks leading up to 27 August but were only reported to the department by the facilities on Sunday. Next weekend the state premier will outline a plan for moving Melbourne out of stage-four lockdown.
- Hong Kong will start conducting mass coronavirus tests on Tuesday. The voluntary tests are part of an attempt to stamp out a third wave of infections that began in late June and saw the densely populated city reimpose economically painful social distancing measures.
That’s all from me Jessica Murray, I’m now handing over to my colleagues in Australia.
Next year’s GCSE and A-level exams could be pushed back to give pupils more time to study the syllabus, the England’s education secretary has said.
Gavin Williamson said England’s exams regulator, Ofqual, was working with the education sector to decide whether there should be a “short delay” to the exam timetable in 2021.
He told the Daily Telegraph:
I know there’s some concern about next year’s exams, and that’s why we’ve been working with Ofqual on changes we can make to help pupils when they take GCSEs and A-levels next year.
Ofqual will continue to work with the education sector and other stakeholders on whether there should be a short delay to the GCSE, A and AS-level exam timetable in 2021, with the aim of creating more teaching time.
Exam season usually begins in May, but the paper said sources suggested they could be pushed back to June and July - but they would not cut into the summer holidays.
Williamson’s comments - on the eve of many schools in England reopening to all pupils for the first time since March - follow a call from Labour for a delay to next year’s exams.
Shadow education secretary Kate Green said pupils entering Year 11 and 13 who have lost up to six months of teaching time face “a mountain to climb” unless the timetable is changed.
She said:
Ministers had warning after warning about problems with this year’s exam results, but allowed it to descend into a fiasco.
This is too important for Boris Johnson to leave until the last minute. Pupils heading back to school need clarity and certainty about the year ahead.
Paul Whiteman, general secretary of school leaders’ union NAHT, said:
Labour’s suggestion of a delay to help with ‘catch-up’ is worthy of serious consideration.
A delay is not without its problems, a consequential delay to the publication of results will put pressure on higher education providers such as universities and colleges as well as employers. All this will need to be dealt with.
AstraZeneca said it has begun to enrol 30,000 participants aged over 18 in a late-stage study to evaluate its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.
Participants are being randomised to receive two doses of either of the candidate, AZD1222, or a saline control, four weeks apart, with twice as many participants receiving the potential vaccine as the saline control, the company said.
The study is being funded by the US government, the London-listed company said.
Canada’s statistical agency is paying close attention to the “pot of cash” that Canadians have saved up amid the Covid-19 pandemic as it looks to understand who is saving and how that money may contribute to the shape of the recovery.
Prior to the pandemic, Canadians saved just 2-3% of their disposable income, but that jumped to 28.2% in the second quarter of this year, Greg Peterson, assistant chief statistician at Statistics Canada, told Reuters on Monday.
“There’s that pot of cash that’s basically sitting there and we’re interested in monitoring where that goes,” Peterson said. “It’s kind of a notable divergence from what we normally see.”
One of the main questions is whether the extra money will go toward paying down household debt or whether it will be spent on goods and services, Peterson said.
The economy is now showing signs of having put the worst behind it, and Canada’s real GDP is seen rebounding 3% in July, edging economic activity closer to pre-pandemic levels, data showed last week.
The jump in the savings rate came in the second quarter amid a unique set of circumstances: disposable incomes climbed sharply on higher government transfers - namely emergency wage benefits - while household spending fell amid Covid-19 shutdowns.
Hong Kong will start conducting mass coronavirus tests on Tuesday, a health scheme that has been swept up in the political debate dividing the city, where many remain deeply distrustful of both local leaders and China.
The voluntary tests are part of an attempt to stamp out a third wave of infections that began in late June and saw the densely populated city reimpose economically painful social distancing measures.
The programme has been hampered by a limited response due to the involvement of mainland Chinese testing firms and doctors - and swirling public mistrust of local authorities as Beijing cracks down on the city’s democracy movement.
Since registration began on Saturday, 510,000 people have signed up to take the free tests - around 7% of the city’s 7.5 million population.
More than half of all 141 community test centres across the city are fully booked for their first day on Tuesday.
But health experts advising the government have said as many as five million people might need to be tested for the scheme to comprehensively uncover hidden transmissions and end the current wave.
Hong Kong has recorded just over 4,800 infections since the virus first hit the city in late January but about 75% of those cases were detected since the start of July.
Tests will run for between a week and two weeks depending on public demand with numbers limited each day to reduce the risk of infection.
Authorities have billed the scheme as a benevolent public health initiative made possible with Chinese help.
Detroit turned an island park into a memorial garden on Monday as cars packed with grieving families slowly travelled past hundreds of photos of city residents who died from Covid-19.
Mayor Mike Duggan declared a Detroit Memorial Day to honour the 1,500-plus city victims of the pandemic. Hearses escorted by police led solemn processions around Belle Isle Park in the Detroit River after bells rang across the region at 8:45am.
“It is our hope that seeing these beautiful faces on the island today ... will wake people up to the devastating effect of the pandemic,” said Rochelle Riley, Detroit’s director of arts and culture.
The memorial was designed to bring some peace to families whose loved ones didn’t have the funerals they deserved, Riley said. “But it may also force us to work harder to limit the number of COVID-19 deaths we’ll endure in the coming months.”
More than 900 photos submitted by families were turned into large posters and staked around Belle Isle, revealing the crushing breadth of the virus.
The pictures show people in better times: Darrin Adams at college graduation; Daniel Aldape catching a fish; Shirley Frank with an Elvis impersonator; Veronica Davis crossing the finish line at a race.
They had “dreams and plans and a story,” Michigan gov Gretchen Whitmer said at Belle Isle. “They weren’t finished yet.”
Detroit has roughly 7% of Michigan’s population but 23% of the state’s 6,400 Covid-19 deaths. The city is nearly 80% Black.
“The virus exposed deep inequities, from basic lack of access to health care or transportation or protections in the workplace,” Whitmer said. “These inequities hit people of colour in vulnerable communities the hardest.”
Algerian authorities said they will further ease a coronavirus lockdown from 1 September, including lifting a ban on some cultural activities such as reopening museums and libraries.
Nurseries will also be reopened at 50% of their capacity. The new steps will also end a paid leave for pregnant women and those with children under 14 years.
Algeria has already eased restrictions linked to the coronavirus, including reopening some businesses, mosques, leisure venues and beaches.
It has so far reported 44,494 infections and 1,510 deaths.
Zoom raised its annual revenue forecast by 30% after comfortably beating quarterly estimates on Monday, as it converts more of its huge free user base to paid subscriptions.
Shares of the company, which have surged almost four-fold this year, rose 5% after the bell. They hit a record high in regular trading.
Video-conferencing platforms, once used mostly as a technological substitute for in-person meetings, became a vital part of day-to-day life this year for people stuck at home under coronavirus restrictions, be it for work, school or socialising.
Zoom, however, has come under fire for its security and privacy shortfalls, prompting many companies and countries to curb the use of the platform.
The company said revenue rose 355% to $663.5m, above analysts’ average estimate of $500.5m.
Zoom said it now has 370,200 institutional customers with more than 10 employees, up about 458% from the same quarter last year.
The company, founded and headed by former Cisco manager Eric Yuan, raised its annual revenue target for fiscal year 2021 to the range of $2.37bn and $2.39bn, from $1.78bn to $1.80bn earlier.
Updated
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Monday the number of coronavirus deaths had risen by 473 to 182,622 and reported 5,972,356 cases, an increase of 37,532 from its previous count.
The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
The World Health Organization has urged governments to engage with people demonstrating against Covid-19 restrictions and listen to their concerns, but stressed protesters needed to understand the virus is dangerous.
Asked about recent demonstrations in a number of countries against coronavirus restrictions, the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said it was important to “listen to what people are asking, what people are saying”.
“We should engage in an honest dialogue,” he told reporters, stressing though that demonstrators have a responsibility to ensure protests are safe.
“The virus is real. It is dangerous. It moves fast and it kills,” he said, insisting “we have to do everything to protect ourselves and to protect others”.
German police on Saturday halted a Berlin march of tens of thousands of people opposed to coronavirus restrictions in the biggest of several European protests against facemask rules and other anti-virus curbs.
Several hundred of the Berlin protesters then broke through barriers and a police cordon to storm Germany’s parliament, in a move German chancellor Angela Merkel condemned as “shameful”.
Speaking about the broader protests, the WHO emergencies chief, Dr Mike Ryan, pointed out that “epidemics and emergencies create strong emotions, and acceptance of measures is always very, very tough”.
It is really important that governments don’t overreact to people protesting against measures.
The real important thing to do is to enter into a dialogue with groups.
Updated
New Jersey and California have taken incremental steps toward resumption of their pre-pandemic economies by allowing restaurants to begin limited indoor dining, as new coronavirus cases subsided nationwide despite some new hotspots.
New Jersey governor Phil Murphy said the state’s restaurants could open their indoor dining areas on Friday for the first time since the coronavirus prompted a shutdown in March.
But they must limit the number of indoor diners to 25% of their capacity and tables must be spaced in accordance with social-distancing rules, Murphy said on Twitter.
NEW: Today, I’m signing an Executive Order that will allow indoor dining to resume:
— Governor Phil Murphy (@GovMurphy) August 31, 2020
☑️Effective 6:00 AM on Friday, 9/4
☑️At 25% capacity
☑️With social distancing in place
Our goal is to ensure this step is done properly to prevent the kind of spikes we saw in other states. pic.twitter.com/Ro49WPThBr
In California, indoor dining will be allowed in San Diego and San Francisco starting on Monday, and some other restrictions will be lifted in nine counties. Gyms, places of worship and movie theatres will also be allowed to reopen indoors with limited capacity.
Full restrictions continue in the remaining counties - where 80% of the population lives - including the state’s largest, Los Angeles County. But hair salons were allowed to reopen on Monday with modifications in all counties under a system unveiled on Friday by governor Gavin Newsom.
New Jersey and California are among the few states that have continued to ban indoor dining, according to the National Governors Association.
In New York City, Mayor Bill de Blasio rejected the idea of a resumption of indoor dining anytime soon for the city’s thousands of restaurants.
“It would take a huge step forward to get to that point,” de Blasio said.
Indoor dining with restrictions is permitted in the rest of New York State. New Jersey and New York were the country’s two hardest-hit states when the virus began spreading in the United States in the spring, but have since brought their infection rates down to among the nation’s lowest.
California, however, reported more new cases of Covid-19 in August than any other state, with nearly 200,000 new infections. The level is down from July, when California reported over 262,000 new cases, according to a Reuters tally.
Nationally, the number of new cases fell 2% last week, the sixth consecutive week of declines. But the number of new infections still averages more than 41,000 a day, and on Sunday the country reached 6 million total cases, nearly a quarter of the world’s total.
The United States also has the most coronavirus-related deaths in the world at over 183,000, and ranks 11th for deaths per capita. Brazil, Peru, Sweden, Spain, Italy and the UK are among the nations with higher per capita deaths.
Coronavirus cases rose in 10 states, up from eight states a week ago, according to a Reuters analysis of the past two weeks compared with the prior two. Deaths rose in 12 states, compared with 13 states a week ago.
Updated
The European commission has said it will contribute to an initiative led by the World Health Organization to buy Covid-19 vaccines, while the WHO said Germany had joined the pact.
The commission, announcing that it would provide €400m ($478m) in guarantees, did not clarify whether EU states would acquire shots through the WHO scheme.
WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Gheybreyesus, told a news conference:
Germany has joined the COVAX facility today.
And also we’re negotiating with the rest of EU members. One possibility we are checking is for the EU members to join as a bloc. I think the best way to end this pandemic is through solidarity, through cooperation, through oneness.
The COVAX initiative aims to purchase for all countries in the world 2bn doses of potential Covid-19 shots from several vaccine makers by the end of 2021.
“Today, the commission is announcing a €400m contribution to COVAX for working together in purchasing future vaccines to the benefit of low and middle income countries,” European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said.
The European commission is negotiating advance purchases of Covid-19 vaccines with several drugmakers on behalf of the 27 EU states and has previously said that EU governments cannot buy vaccines through parallel procurement schemes.
Asked whether its guidance to EU states not to buy vaccines through COVAX was now dropped, a commission spokeswoman declined to elaborate.
“The detailed terms and conditions for the EU’s participation and contribution will be worked out in the coming days and weeks,” the commission said.
The commission added in a statement that it was ready, together with EU states, “to put expertise and resources at work within COVAX to accelerate and scale-up development and manufacturing of a global supply of vaccines for citizens across the world, in poor and rich countries”.
Critics have said that by buying vaccines exclusively through an EU scheme, the commission was effectively undermining the WHO-led initiative.
The commission said it was committed to donating to developing countries some of the vaccines it buys through its procurement scheme.
At least 172 countries have registered expressions of interest in COVAX, including 92 low- and middle-income countries eligible to secure doses through the GAVI vaccine alliance which covers much of their cost.
Some 80 self-financing countries have also submitted expressions of interest and must make firm commitments by 18 September.
The United States, Japan, Britain and the EU have struck their own deals to secure millions of Covid-19 vaccine doses for their citizens, ignoring the WHO’s warnings that “vaccine nationalism” will squeeze supplies.
Updated
Updated
A flight from the Greek island of Zante was “full of selfish ‘covidiots’ and an inept crew”, according to a passenger among the almost 200 onboard who have been told to self-isolate after a coronavirus outbreak.
Tui said it had launched an investigation after 16 people tested positive for Covid-19 linked to its flight to Cardiff on 25 August, including seven passengers who were infectious or potentially infectious on the plane.
Stephanie Whitfield said on Monday that many of her fellow passengers were not wearing face coverings correctly and seemed to “disregard the rules”.
“Lots of the people were wearing the masks underneath their noses or even underneath their chins,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “They were taking the masks off to talk to friends and they were going up and down the aisles to talk to their friends without their masks on.”
Whitfield said she noticed a crew member ask one woman to put her mask on but “the vast majority” of passengers were not reminded of the rules. Face coverings are required to be worn at airports and on flights unless a passenger has a medical condition that makes them exempt.
“There was a chap sat next to me who had his mask around his chin for the full flight, and the stewardess was talking to him and she didn’t say anything to him,” she said.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be running the coronavirus liveblog for the next few hours.
Please feel free to get in touch with any story tips or personal experiences you would like to share.
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Summary
That’s all from me for now. My colleague Jessica Murray will take you through the next few hours. Here’s a summary of the latest news:
- The United States exceeded 6m coronavirus infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. It currently sits on 6,009,899, with 183,258 deaths. The milestone comes amid rising infection in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
- India’s former president Pranab Mukherjee died after testing positive. He was 84. Mukherjee had emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain on 10 August at New Delhi’s army hospital research and referral after suffering a fall. The hospital said he had tested positive for coronavirus after the surgery and his condition was critical.
- The United Arab Emirates recorded more than 500 daily Covid-19 infections, the highest number over a 24-hour period in nearly two months. The Gulf Arab state has reported 541 infections and two deaths, the highest since 683 cases were recorded on 5 July.
- The pandemic could wipe out major health advancements, the WHO has warned. More than 90% of countries have seen ordinary health services disrupted, a World Health Organization survey has shown.
- Russia neared 1m known cases, the fourth worst nominal caseload in the world. The country reported 4,993 new cases on Monday, bringing its nationwide tally to 995,319.
- Scotland recorded the highest daily number of cases since mid-May. Health officials detected 160 cases overnight, following the disclosure of 123 new cases on Sunday.
-
Australia has reported a record daily toll of 41 deaths from Covid-19, all in the state of Victoria. The southern state has been gripped by an outbreak that prompted a strict, stage-four lockdown. The Victorian Department of Health confirmed that 33 of the 41 new deaths were aged care residents who had died in the weeks leading up to 27 August but were only reported to the department by the facilities on Sunday. Next weekend the state premier will outline a plan for moving Melbourne out of stage-four lockdown.
- China has reported 17 new Covid-19 cases, up from nine a day earlier, the country’s health authority said on Monday. The National Health Commission said all of the new cases were imported infections involving travellers returning from abroad, marking the 15th straight day of no local infections for the country.
- India reported 78,512 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, just off its record high of 78,761, the day before.
- The number of doctors in Indonesia who have died after becoming infected with Covid-19 has passed 100, according to the Indonesian Doctors Association. The country is facing one of the worst outbreaks in south-east Asia, and there are growing concerns that a recent rise in cases is leaving hospitals overwhelmed.
- New Zealand has reported five new community cases of transmission of Covid-19, and four in managed isolation. All of the new community cases are linked to the Auckland cluster.
- Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 610 to 242,381, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
- Coronavirus cases in Colombia surpassed 600,000 on Sunday as deaths from the virus approach 19,400, ahead of the end to more than five months of lockdown. The Andean country has 607,938 cases of the virus according to the health ministry, after it reported 8,024 cases on Sunday. Daily cases have begun to fall since their peak on 20 August of 13,056.
Updated
Here’s a little more detail on those comments from the WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan, who has warned that the authorisation of vaccines requires a “great deal of seriousness and reflection”.
Although every country had the right to approve drugs without completing full trials, “it is not something that you do very lightly”, she said.
The head of the US Food and Drug Administration said he would be willing to bypass the normal approval process to authorise a Covid-19 vaccine as long as officials were convinced the benefits outweighed the risks.
Russia has already granted regulatory approval to a vaccine this month after less than two months of human testing, prompting some western experts to question its safety and efficacy.
The WHO’s preferred approach would be to have a full set of data which could be used for the pre-qualification of vaccines, Swaminathan said. The WHO would then consider the efficacy and safety of each drug on a case by case basis, she added.
The WHO has used experimental drugs to combat Ebola in Africa, a measure that proved successful, said the head of the organisation’s emergencies programme Mike Ryan.
But he stressed that a fast-track approach without full trials required intensive monitoring and safety follow-up work, and should be halted immediately if problems occurred.
“If you move too quickly to vaccinate … millions of people, you may miss certain adverse effects,” Ryan said.
Updated
As the daily tally of positive coronavirus tests in the UK reached the highest level on Sunday since 4 June, at 1,715 new cases, we take a look at whether this is a true rise in infections, and what it means.
Are cases really rising?
A quick glance at UK figures for positive coronavirus tests shows a clear upward trend since early July. On 5 July 516 new cases were reported, with a rolling seven-day average of just over 546 per day, while on 26 August 1,048 cases were reported, with a rolling seven-day average of just over 1,164 per day.
Some have suggested this rise is largely down to an increase in the number of people being tested. Indeed, 126,100 tests were processed on 5 July, compared with 186,500 on 26 August. But an analysis of the figures shows this only partly explains the rise.
As Prof Paul Hunter of the University of East Anglia points out, the proportion of tests returning positive – the positivity rate – appears to be rising. Over the first seven days in July, 232 tests were done for every positive case reported and in mid August only about 164 tests were done for every positive case – although in recent weeks this appears to have stabilised.
France's new Covid-19 infections shot up by 50% in August
France’s new Covid-19 infections surged by almost 50% in August, which saw the highest monthly tally since the beginning of the outbreak earlier this year, while hospitalisations for the disease seem to be creeping up again.
The country’s health authorities reported 3,082 additional cases over the past 24 hours, sharply down from a caseload of above 5,000 each on the two previous days, but the Monday figure always tends to dip as there are less tests conducted on Sundays.
The seven-day moving average of new infections, which smoothes out reporting irregularities, stood at 5,167, reaching a new record for a fourth day in a row, versus a low of 272 on 27 May, two weeks after the country ended its two-month long lockdown.
France’s cumulative total of Covid-19 infections has reached 281,025 versus 187,919 at the end of July. In August, new cases increased on average by a record 3,003 every day, a figure four times higher than July’s average increase of 746 per day.
The surge of new cases has led authorities to re-impose some containment measures, such as making face masks mandatory in the streets, shops and public transportation of almost all the country’s main cities.
And, as of Tuesday, masks will also be compulsory in workplaces.
But, as the new school year starts this week, French president Emmanuel Macron and prime minister Jean Castex have been saying they will do everything to avoid a new national lockdown.
The number of people in hospital for the disease has declined by 14% in August versus July as the virus is now mainly circulating among young people, who typically do not develop serious symptoms.
But that figure has risen for the second day running on Monday, at 4,582, after going down for almost two weeks. And the number of people in intensive care units was up for a fourth day in a row, at 409.
Those figures are still very low compared to their respective peaks of 32,292 and 7,148 seen in April but health experts are following the trends closely.
France reported 29 new deaths from Covid-19 on Monday, meaning the average daily fatalities fell to a new low of 12 in August, versus 14 in July and of peak of 695 in April.
Updated
Partial restrictions in and around the Philippine capital, Manila, will be kept for another month starting on 1 September, the president, Rodrigo Duterte, has said.
Duterte announced the decision in a televised address after the health ministry reported another 3,446 new cases and 38 fatalities, taking its total count to 220,819 cases with 3,558 deaths.
The health secretary, Francisco Duque, said the daily reported cases remained high, citing a need to intensify anti-Covid-19 measures to slow the infection rate, which is the highest in south-east Asia. The time for cases to double has slowed to 12 to 13 days from seven days, Duque said.
Carlito Galvez, a former military chief in charge of the national coronavirus taskforce, said the government was working to boost hospital capacity and would add 1,000 beds in Manila and nearby provinces, which account for most of the cases. Galvez said:
We need to strengthen treatment facilities, especially ICU (intensive care units), given the possibility of an increase in severe cases once we further open the economy.
Manila ended reimposed strict lockdown measures on 19 August to boost business activity and the economy, which fell into recession for the first time in 29 years with a record slump in the second quarter.
Most businesses, including dine-in services, will be allowed to reopen, Harry Roque, Duterte’s spokesman said. Religious services will continue to be permitted with a maximum attendance of 10 people.
People must also wear masks in public and observe one-metre social distancing, while children, older people and pregnant women are urged to stay at home, Roque said. The government has tested more than 2.4 million people and aims to test 10 million, or nearly a tenth of the population, by the second quarter.
Updated
UAE suffers worst day in nearly two months
The United Arab Emirates on Monday recorded more than 500 daily Covid-19 infections, the highest number over a 24-hour period in nearly two months.
The Gulf Arab state saw 541 infections and two deaths, the government’s communications office tweeted, the highest since 683 cases were recorded on 5 July.
The health minister AbdulRahman Bin Mohammed al-Owais said on 18 August infections could rise after an “alarming” increase over the previous two weeks.
A government official later warned a de facto overnight curfew could be reinstated in some areas if there were a high number of infections.
Businesses and public venues have gradually reopened since a nationwide curfew in place since mid-March was lifted on 24 June. The tourism capital Dubai reopened to foreign visitors in early July.
The UAE has recorded 70,231 infections and 384 deaths. The government does not disclose where in the country of seven emirates, or states, the infections or deaths occurred.
Updated
The emergency authorisation of vaccines requires a “great deal of seriousness and reflection”, the World Health Organization has warned.
Although every country had the right to approve drugs without full trial, “it is not something that you do lightly”, the WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan told a news conference.
Spain has recorded 96,654 new cases over the past fortnight – 23,572 of them between Friday and today, according to the latest figures from the national health ministry.
The figures also show that 83 people have died since Friday, bringing the total death toll to 29,094. To date, Spain has logged 462,858 cases.
Fernando Simón, the head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, said the situation in the Madrid region, where almost 31,000 new cases have been recorded over the past 14 days, was of particular concern.
The situation in Madrid is generating worry. We’re in an epidemic situation that isn’t good but isn’t catastrophic. The health system is working correctly, but the rise in cases is starting to generate problems.
However, Simón described the national situation as “relatively stable”, adding:
Yes, the figures continue to be high, but they have to be put in the context of a high level of detection.
Relaxing restrictions without having brought the virus under control would be a “recipe for disaster”, the World Health Organization’s director general has warned, as he urged countries to persevere. Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recognised that many people were getting tired of restrictions and wanted to return to normality after eight months of the pandemic.
We want to see children returning to school and people returning to workplaces, but we want to see it done safely. No country can just pretend the pandemic is over. The reality is this virus spreads easily. Opening up without control is a recipe for disaster.
Updated
Ireland lifted an extended local lockdown on Monday in the eastern county of Kildare ahead of schedule, but the whole country remains under some of Europe’s strictest Covid-19 restrictions.
Ireland closed or limited business on 7 August in three of its 26 counties – Kildare, Laois and Offaly – and their residents were barred from travelling outside their county.
Ten days later, an uptick in cases prompted a significant tightening in measures nationwide. Authorities cut the number of visitors allowed in a home to six, banned fans from all sport events and urged people to avoid public transport where they could.
While the situation in Kildare has improved, the national situation remains uncertain and the government continues to stress the importance of adhering to the public health advice and guidance to stop the spread of the virus.
The local lockdowns had been due to run until 6 September but the prime minister, Micheál Martin, said the numbers in Kildare were now similar to the rest of the country. He also urged vigilance ahead of a review of the nationwide restrictions on 13 September.
Ireland has retained one of the strictest lockdown regimes in Europe and reopened its economy at a slower pace.
At 30.6, Ireland’s 14-day cumulative number of cases per 100,000 people is higher than Britain, Germany and Sweden but below regional hotspots in Spain and France. Ireland has reported 1,777 deaths in total but only 14 in August, despite the rise in cases.
Updated
Students face being sent home for “malicious coughing” or making inappropriate jokes about Covid-19 under new rules being drawn up by some schools as the bulk of those in England and Wales fully reopen this week.
The new behavioural guidelines come as the Department for Education said schools should clearly state the consequences for bad behaviour, particularly around new movement restrictions and hygiene rules.
In updated guidance for schools, the DfE also warned: “It is likely that adverse experiences or lack of routines of regular attendance and classroom discipline may contribute to disengagement with education upon return to school, resulting in increased incidence of poor behaviour.”
US tops 6 million cases – Johns Hopkins University
The US’s caseload has exceeded 6 million, according to Johns Hopkins university.
The researchers have been keeping track of the virus’s spread using both official releases and media reports. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has not yet released Monday’s data, has confirmed 5,934,824 cases.
The US is the world’s worst-affected country, with more than 2 million more cases than the next worst, Brazil.
Updated
The UK is at risk of a new surge of infections, experts have said, as schools and universities reopen their doors and cold weather drives people inside, Nicola Davis and Natalie Grover write.
On Sunday, the government reported 1,715 new cases, the highest daily number since 4 June and the highest number for a weekend day since mid-May. Earlier on Monday, 1,406 new cases were reported. Numbers collected over the weekend are often lower than those for other days of the week owing to lower levels of testing and reporting delays.
Paul Hunter, a professor in medicine at the University of East Anglia, said Sunday’s figure was “quite a big jump”. He said data for the rest of the week would be needed to get a clear idea of the scale of any uptick, but the figures tied in to a broader trend of an increase in infections in the UK since early July. Prof Neil Ferguson, an epidemiologist at Imperial College London, said:
What it clearly demonstrates is we’re in a position where case numbers are going up. So we don’t have much room for manoeuvre.
Sweden is seeing a spike in demand for face masks, several pharmacists have said, ahead of a possible U-turn by the authorities, who have so far doubted their effectiveness.
Unlike most other European countries, Sweden has kept many businesses, restaurants and most schools open, while not recommending the use of face masks, which remain a rare sight unlike in neighbouring Denmark, Norway and Finland.
But after the public health agency (FHM) said two weeks ago that it may issue new recommendations, Swedes appear to be stockpiling.
Face mask sales at the online pharmacist Apotea have increased to around 400,000 units a week in the past two to three weeks from 150,000 in previous weeks, the chief executive, Par Svärdson, said.
Apoteket reported a jump in face mask sales of about 30% in the same weeks, to weekly levels equivalent to an entire year’s turnover, according to a spokesman.
“It feels like FHM, from their previous hard line of saying ‘no’, are now open to looking at saying ‘yes’,” Svärdson said, adding he would expect a five- to tenfold increase in face mask sales in the event of a change in recommendations over their use.
Sweden has so far rejected recommending or making mandatory the use of face masks in some public spaces, as many countries in Europe have done. The health agency’s chief epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has said they have little proven effect and could lead to a false sense of security among wearers.
But the health agency director general, Johan Carlson, told a press conference on 18 August that there may be situations – such as doctor and dentist visits and on public transport – where face mask recommendations could be issued.
Sweden’s death toll relative to its population has far outstripped those of its neighbours although it remains lower than in some European countries that adopted strict lockdowns such as Britain and Spain.
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The latest official data show another 1,406 people in the UK have been confirmed as having contracted the virus, while another two people have died, taking the cumulative totals to 335,873 and 44,501 respectively.
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The United Arab Emirates has announced more than 500 new cases for the first time since the start of July. Its ministry of health said 541 people had tested positive, bringing the country’s total to 70,231 cases.
It also said the UAE’s death toll from the virus had increased to 384, after two people died of the virus.
Additional 82,763 Covid-19 tests were conducted by #UAE health authorities, revealing 541 new cases and bringing the total number of cases to 70,231 . The new cases identified are undergoing treatment. #UAEGov
— UAEGov (@uaegov) August 31, 2020
Also, @mohapuae announced the death of 2 people who tested positive for COVID-19, due to complications. This brings the total death toll to 384 .
— UAEGov (@uaegov) August 31, 2020
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Pupils should not be sent home if they refuse to comply with new guidance making face coverings mandatory in corridors and on school transport, Scotland’s education secretary has said.
John Swinney announced updated guidance for schools making it mandatory for pupils and staff to wear masks because of the “difficulty” of physical distancing in “crowded corridor environments”.
But he rejected the idea that pupils should be sent home if they failed to wear a face covering, when asked whether he agreed with the suggestion by the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) at the government’s coronavirus briefing.
He said:
We’ve got to make sure that the wearing of face coverings in schools becomes essentially a habitual part of school life.
In our guidance, we make it clear that young people should be encouraged and motivated and required to do that, but it should not result in exclusion from school if they don’t do that.
“I don’t agree with the SSTA that young people should be excluded from school if they’re not wearing face coverings, but I do think schools need to build up the cultural understanding and awareness of the importance of wearing face coverings as something that is done to protect all of the school population – staff and pupils alike.
The new rules, which came into effect on Monday, are “precautionary judgments” based on World Health Organization advice and concerns from schools since they reopened two weeks ago, Swinney said.
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Former Indian president dies after testing positive
Photograph: Adnan Abidi/Reuters
India’s former president, Pranab Mukherjee, a senior leader of India’s Congress party has died after testing positive for Covid-19. He was 84.
Mukherjee had emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain on 10 August at New Delhi’s army hospital research and referral after suffering a fall. The hospital said he had tested positive for coronavirus after the surgery and his condition was critical.
The hospital said his health had begun declining on Monday after a lung infection resulted in septic shock.
India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, who leads the rival Bharatiya Janata party, tweeted that Mukherjee left an indelible mark on the development trajectory of India.
India grieves the passing away of Bharat Ratna Shri Pranab Mukherjee. He has left an indelible mark on the development trajectory of our nation. A scholar par excellence, a towering statesman, he was admired across the political spectrum and by all sections of society. pic.twitter.com/gz6rwQbxi6
— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) August 31, 2020
Mukherjee was president from 2012 to 2017, at the end of a long period when the Congress party held power. The office is largely ceremonial in India, with executive powers resting with the prime minister.
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A small independent Russian teachers’ union is urging members not to be coerced into accepting shots of the “Sputnik V” vaccine, which is to be mandatory for military personnel.
Moscow clinics recently began receiving supplies of the vaccine, which has been approved for use inside Russia even though the final phase III tests began only last Wednesday.
From September, doctors and teachers will be among the first to be offered the jab on a voluntary basis, officials have said, an arrangement Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has said he supports.
The defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, has said shots of the vaccine will be made mandatory for military personnel.
With Russian schools reopening on 1 September for the first time since March, the teachers’ union Uchitel has launched an online petition against making the vaccine mandatory for teachers before all clinical trials are complete.
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Portugal could be added back on to the UK’s quarantine list due to a rise in cases.
There were 21.1 per 100,000 people in Portugal in the seven days to 30 August, up from 19.4 in the seven days to 29 August.
A seven-day rate of 20 Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people is the threshold above which the UK government considers triggering quarantine conditions.
Searches for flights to Portugal soared after the country was removed from the UK’s quarantine list just over a week ago.
Passengers arriving in the UK from Portugal no longer had to self-isolate from 4am on Saturday 22 August after an approved travel corridor was confirmed.
Google search data showed a significant spike in searches for the term “flights to Portugal” by users in the UK at around 6pm on Thursday 20 August, the day the news about Portugal was announced.
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The US biotech company Novavax has reached an agreement in principle with the Canadian government to supply up to 76 million doses of its experimental vaccine, it has said. The news sent the company’s shares up nearly 7%.
The deal is the latest example of countries rushing to secure access to vaccines, and comes weeks after Canada signed separate deals with Pfizer and Moderna.
Novavax said it expected to finalise an advance purchase agreement to supply doses of the vaccine, beginning as early as the second quarter of next year.
The agreement is subject to the vaccine getting a licence from Health Canada, the company said. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a summary of the latest news:
- The pandemic could wipe out major health advancements, the WHO has warned. More than 90% of countries have seen ordinary health services disrupted, a World Health Organization survey has shown.
- Russia neared 1m known cases, the fourth worst nominal caseload in the world. The country reported 4,993 new cases on Monday, bringing its nationwide tally to 995,319.
- Scotland recorded the highest daily number of cases since mid-May. Health officials detected 160 cases overnight, following the disclosure of 123 new cases on Sunday.
- The United States is approaching 6 million coronavirus infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. It currently sits on 5,996,431, with 183,066 deaths. The milestone comes amid rising infection in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
- Australia has reported a record daily toll of 41 deaths from Covid-19, all in the state of Victoria. The southern state has been gripped by an outbreak that prompted a strict, stage-four lockdown. The Victorian Department of Health confirmed that 33 of the 41 new deaths were aged care residents who had died in the weeks leading up to 27 August but were only reported to the department by the facilities on Sunday. Next weekend the state premier will outline a plan for moving Melbourne out of stage-four lockdown.
- China has reported 17 new Covid-19 cases, up from nine a day earlier, the country’s health authority said on Monday. The National Health Commission said all of the new cases were imported infections involving travellers returning from abroad, marking the 15th straight day of no local infections for the country.
- India reported 78,512 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, just off its record high of 78,761, the day before.
- The number of doctors in Indonesia who have died after becoming infected with Covid-19 has passed 100, according to the Indonesian Doctors Association. The country is facing one of the worst outbreaks in south-east Asia, and there are growing concerns that a recent rise in cases is leaving hospitals overwhelmed.
- New Zealand has reported five new community cases of transmission of Covid-19, and four in managed isolation. All of the new community cases are linked to the Auckland cluster.
- Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 610 to 242,381, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
- Coronavirus cases in Colombia surpassed 600,000 on Sunday as deaths from the virus approach 19,400, ahead of the end to more than five months of lockdown. The Andean country has 607,938 cases of the virus according to the health ministry, after it reported 8,024 cases on Sunday. Daily cases have begun to fall since their peak on 20 August of 13,056.
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Governments need to invest aid funds more selectively to overcome the crisis in the long term, the International Monetary Fund’s managing director Kristalina Georgieva has said.
They also need to make sure that public procurement is transparent and competitive so as to not lose the trust of citizens, Georgieva said at an Austrian economic forum, which she joined online.
“Countries will have to be more selective as to who they support,” Georgieva said, listing digital businesses and those that can profit from green climate policy as examples of potentially successful investments. “Up to now we support everybody.”
More than 100 countries have requested emergency financing assistance from the IMF so far. The fund has committed $270bn (£200bn) of its $1tn resources already, its chief said, adding that in total some $11tn had been invested in stimulus campaigns around the world. Given the huge amount of funds, expenditure control was key.
Make sure that governments are put on a digital platform, so that citizens can see where does the tax euro actually go.
Georgieva, a Bulgarian, said she hoped for a renewed drive towards strong policies and government transparency in central and eastern Europe.
The region had done well in building fiscal discipline and would probably come through the crisis better this year than more advanced European countries. She sees gross domestic product shrinking 5-6% in the central and eastern Europe region and 10% in the richer European countries this year.
However, she called on central and eastern European governments to redirect financial support more carefully than in the first round of emergency help and not stop it as an abrupt end could lead to a tripling of bankruptcies among small and medium-sized enterprises there.
The same way the virus hits people with preconditions the hardest, the economic crisis hits countries with weak policies, not sufficient oversight the hardest.
Updated
Mass vaccination of high risk groups in Russia will begin in November-December this year, local news agencies have quoted the country’s health minister, Mikhail Murashko, as saying.
Russia became the first country to grant regulatory approval to a vaccine after less than two months of human testing, prompting international experts to question its safety and efficacy.
Updated
Coronavirus could wipe out major medical advances, WHO warns
More than 90% of countries have seen ordinary health services disrupted by the pandemic, with major gains in medical care attained over decades vulnerable to being wiped out in a short period, a World Health Organization survey has shown.
The Geneva-based body has frequently warned about other life-saving programmes being impacted by the pandemic and has sent countries mitigation advice, but the survey yielded the first WHO data so far on the scale of disruptions. The report said:
The impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on essential health services is a source of great concern. Major health gains achieved over the past two decades can be wiped out in a short period of time.
The survey includes responses from between May and July from more than 100 countries. Among the most affected services were routine immunisations (70%), family planning (68%) and cancer diagnosis and treatment (55%), while emergency services were disturbed in almost a quarter of responding countries.
The WHO’s eastern Mediterranean region, which includes Afghanistan, Syria and Yemen, was most affected followed by the African and south-east Asian regions, it showed. The Americas region was not part of the survey.
Since Covid-19 cases were first identified in December last year, the virus is thought to have killed nearly 850,000 people, the latest Reuters tally showed.
Researchers think that non-Covid deaths have also increased in some places due partly to health service disruptions, although these may be harder to calculate.
The WHO survey said it was “reasonable to anticipate that even a modest disruption in essential health services could lead to an increase in morbidity and mortality from causes other than Covid-19 in the short to medium and long-term.” Further research was needed.
It also warned that the disruptions could be felt even after the pandemic ends. “The impact may be felt beyond the immediate pandemic as, in trying to catch up on services, countries may find that resources are overwhelmed.”
Updated
Celaá said that teaching children in groups and “bubbles” should ensure children were safe, even when social distancing couldn’t be observed.
The date of the return to school varies from region to region, but the plan is for all of Spain’s schools to welcome back their students during the course of September.
Some children in Madrid will begin classes this week, while others will take part in a staggered return.
The Madrid regional government said it had bought 250 prefabricated classrooms as a “temporary solution” for schools that needed more space to maintain social distancing, as well as 60,000 screens to separate students from one another.
To date, Spain has recorded 439,286 cases of the virus – 89,168 of them over the past two weeks, prompting fears of a second wave of infections. Covid-19 has killed more than 29,000 people in Spain.
Speaking on Monday, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said that, while the pandemic was the greatest challenge the world had faced in a century – and one that had caused huge social and economic upheaval and uncertainty – Spain had no choice but to pull together once again as it had done to flatten the curve in the spring.
Calling for unity and repeating his pleas for an end to partisan politics during the crisis, Sánchez said “no stumbles will stop us from getting up again” and “no partial setbacks will stop us from achieving the final victory we so dearly desire”.
Updated
Spain is ready to begin reopening its schools over the coming days following the nationwide, six-month shutdown, the country’s education minister has said.
As children across Spain prepare to return to classes, Isabel Celaá said the authorities had done all they could to make the resumption as safe as possible, but acknowledged that there could be no 100% guarantees. She told Onda Cero radio:
Schools need to open because our sons and daughters need them to – educationally, emotionally and socially. There’s no such thing as zero risk, but the ministry, regional governments and teaching staff have all worked ceaselessly to reduce it as much as possible.
The minister said that, while the country was still facing “something we’ve never faced before”, there were no plans for another huge school shutdown. Celaá said:
Today we know more about children and Covid than we did in March – that’s very clear. Today, we wouldn’t go for a definitive shutdown as we did in March. The scientific evidence suggests that young kids – aged 10-12 – aren’t super-spreaders of the virus, as we thought in March.
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GlaxoSmithKline and its partner Vir Biotechnology have started testing their experimental antibody on early-stage Covid-19 patients, entering the race to find a winner in a promising class of antiviral drugs to combat the pandemic.
The British drugmaker said on Monday the long-acting single injection would be tested on recently diagnosed high-risk cases for its ability to prevent hospitalisation, typically a life-threatening disease stage. GSK is behind some peers in developing the class.
Updated
Here’s a little more detail on that announcement from the European commission. Asked whether its guidance to EU states not to buy vaccines through Covax was now dropped, a commission spokeswoman said:
The detailed terms and conditions for the EU’s participation and contribution will be worked out in the coming days and weeks.
Critics have said that by buying vaccines exclusively through an EU scheme, the commission was undermining the WHO-led initiative. It said it was committed to donating to developing countries some of the vaccines it buys through its procurement scheme.
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Scotland records 160 new cases, the highest since mid-May
Scotland has recorded the highest daily number of cases since mid-May after health officials detected 160 cases overnight, following the disclosure of 123 new cases on Sunday.
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister, said the figures were “undoubtedly a concern to us”. She said a majority of the new cases were spread across central Scotland, with 69 in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde health board area, 27 in Lanarkshire and 19 in the Lothians.
She said the Glasgow cases appeared to be linked to a large number of small clusters, and others followed indoor parties a week ago. The number of Covid-19 patients in hospital increased too, by five to 256. Five people are in intensive care.
She said the data highlighted the urgent need for people to follow physical distancing and hygiene rules. “It’s a reminder that the virus is still a very real risk and it’s a development which concerns me and one we’re taking very seriously,” she said.
The number of cases linked to the 2 Sisters chicken-processing plant in Coupar Angus, in Perthshire, where production was suspended earlier in August, grew to 188, including 24 close contacts of the 164 employees who were affected. But the rate of infection has slowed significantly, and the plant is due to reopen on Tuesday, with significant distancing and hygiene policies in place.
Updated
The European commission is negotiating advance purchases of vaccines with several drugmakers on behalf of the 27 EU states and has said in past weeks EU governments cannot buy vaccines through parallel procurement schemes.
The commission added that it was ready, together with EU states, to “put expertise and resources at work within Covax to accelerate and scale-up development and manufacturing of a global supply of vaccines for citizens across the world, in poor and rich countries”.
The European commission will contribute €400m (£352m, $476m) in guarantees to a World Health Organization initiative to buy vaccines, it has said. Countries wishing to be part of the scheme, dubbed Covax, had to submit expressions of interest by Monday.
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Hello, I’m taking over from Sarah Marsh for the next few hours. If you have questions or comments or you’d like to draw anything to my attention, your best bet is probably Twitter, where I’m KevinJRawlinson.
Updated
Japan’s plan to more than triple its coronavirus testing is unlikely to improve its fight against the outbreak without an overhaul in the test approval process, which has kept daily coronavirus-testing well below capacity, experts say.
The prime minister, Shinzo Abe, who announced his resignation on Friday for health reasons, said on the same day the government would increase testing capacity to 200,000 a day.
But a highly bureaucratic approval process means Japan has one of the lowest testing regimes among major economies, carrying out about 14 tests per 1,000 people, compared with 36 in South Korea and 246 in the United States.
Patients wanting to be tested must go through telephone consultations, demonstrate they have symptoms or show they have been in touch with an infected person. Health ministry authorities must then approve the test and have in some cases refused to authorise them.
The policy focus should be on speeding up the turnaround time of testing, tracing contacts and empowering medical professionals, said Fumie Sakamoto, the infection control manager at St Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo.
“Tests should be performed based on medical judgment and not on patients’ requests,” Sakamoto said.
Abe’s pledge would mark a sharp rise from Japan’s current capacity of about 52,000 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests and 8,000 antigen tests a day.
But actual PCR testing has been less than half the capacity over the past month, averaging 20,000 per day. “Rather than 200,000 tests a day, I think it’s more important that each municipality has a system that allows doctors to perform the tests they consider necessary,” said Koji Wada, professor of public health at the International University of Health and Welfare in Tokyo.
Early in the crisis, the World Health Organization director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, urged countries to “test, test, test” to tackle what he called “the defining global health crisis of our time”.
But Satoru Hashimoto, who directs the intensive care division at Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, said there was no proof that increasing testing would prevent deaths.
Testing everyone regardless of symptoms “takes a huge amount of resources and brings very limited benefit”, he said.
Updated
Daiichi Sankyo Co said on Monday that its MRNA-based Covid-19 vaccine candidate had been selected for inclusion in a drug discovery programme by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development.
The vaccine, known as DS-5670, was picked for the second round of AMED’s programme dedicated to Covid-19 research. Daiichi Sankyo is aiming to begin clinical studies of the vaccine around March 2021 in collaboration with the University of Tokyo.
Updated
Hello everyone. I am running the Guardian’s global live feed today from London. Please do get in touch with me while I work to share what is happening where you are.
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Ghana will reopen its international airport on Tuesday but with new regulations in place to curb the spread of the coronavirus, the president has announced.
Kotoka international airport, outside the capital, Accra, was closed in March along with other border points in an effort to contain the virus in the west African country.
“I am glad to announce that Kotoka international airport will reopen and resume operations from Tuesday, 1 September 2020,” the president, Nana Akufo-Addo, said in a nationwide broadcast late on Sunday.
He said land borders would remain closed.
New safety measures have been imposed to prevent passengers bringing the virus into the country.
“Any passenger arriving in Ghana must be in possession of a negative Covid-19 PCR test result from an accredited laboratory in the country of origin,” he said. The test should have been done not more than 72 hours before their departure.
All airlines are to ensure compliance with the directive for passengers wishing to travel to Ghana, Akufo-Addo said.
In addition, arriving passengers must undergo a Covid-19 test at the airport terminal at their own cost, though children under five will be exempt.
“Passengers who test positive for Covid-19 will be handled by the health authorities for further clinical assessment and management.”
The virus has so far infected 44,205 people and claimed 276 lives in the country of around 30 million people.
Updated
Hong Kong will resume face-to-face school classes from 23 September as the Asian financial hub’s authorities aim to wind back strict coronavirus restrictions, which kept about 900,000 students working at home for over four months.
Kevin Yeung, the city’s education secretary, said the resumption would be phased with grades 1, 5 and 6 resuming for secondary schools, primary schools and upper kindergartens on 23 September, while other grades would open on 29 September.
The city’s government had said at the start of August that face-to-face classes would be suspended indefinitely as the Chinese special administrative region battled to control a third wave of the coronavirus.
The reversal in policy comes with new daily cases dropping substantially to single and low double-digits from triple digits a few weeks earlier. The Chinese government is also offering mass coronavirus testing for all Hong Kong residents starting this week.
Schools in the former British colony have been mostly shut since January with many having switched to online learning. The switch to online has frustrated teachers, parents and students and exacerbated the learning gap between the haves and have-nots.
More than two-thirds of parents, regardless of income, believe their children have difficulty learning at home, according to a February survey by the Education University of Hong Kong.
A survey by the Society for Community Organisation (SoCO) of nearly 600 low-income students shows more than 70% did not have computers and 28% had no broadband at home.
Updated
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The Philippines reported on Monday 3,446 coronavirus infections and 38 deaths, taking its total caseload to 220,819 and fatalities to 3,558, its health ministry said. The ministry also said on Monday that five Philippine hospitals have been identified as candidates for potential clinical trials of a Covid-19 vaccine manufactured by the China-based Sinovac Biotech.
Updated
More than 1,700 people in the UK have been reported to have tested positive for coronavirus, the largest weekend number since the middle of May.
The government figures, published on Sunday, which showed a further 1,715 positive tests, continue a worrying trend of a growing number of cases since the beginning of July, amid persistent concerns over a second spike in the autumn.
The cases bring the total number to 334,467. There was one new death, bringing the total to 41,499.
Weekend figures are typically lower than those recorded on weekdays because of delays in processing patient information. The last Saturday or Sunday when the daily number of new positive cases was above 1,715 was 17 May, when the figure was 1,838, though the preceding figures that week were significantly higher than they have been in recent days. The total is the highest number on any day since 4 June.
The news came as passengers who flew to Cardiff from the Greek island of Zante on a Tui flight five days ago were told to self-isolate after at least seven people on the aircraft tested positive for Covid-19.
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Russia's coronavirus cases approach 1m
Russia reported 4,993 new cases of the coronavirus on Monday, bringing its nationwide tally to 995,319, the fourth largest caseload in the world. Russia’s coronavirus taskforce said 83 people had died over the last 24 hours, pushing the official death toll to 17,176.
At a factory south of Japan’s Toyota City, robots have started sharing the work of quality-control inspectors, as the pandemic accelerates a shift from Toyota’s vaunted “go and see” system that helped revolutionise mass production in the 20th century.
Inside the auto-parts plant of Musashi Seimitsu Industry Co Ltd, a robotic arm picks up and spins a bevel gear, scanning its teeth against a light in search of surface flaws. The inspection takes about two seconds – similar to that of highly trained employees who check about 1,000 units per shift.
“Inspecting 1,000 of the exact same thing day-in day-out requires a lot of skill and expertise, but it’s not very creative,” the chief executive, Hiroshi Otsuka, told Reuters. “We’d like to release workers from those tasks.”
Global manufacturers have long used robots in production while leaving the knotty work of spotting flaws mainly to humans. But social distancing measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 have prompted a rethink of the factory floor.
That has spurred the increased use of robots and other technology for quality control, including remote monitoring, which was already being adopted before the pandemic.
Updated
India reported 78,512 coronavirus infections on Monday, more than any other country but fewer than the previous day, when it posted the world’s biggest, single-day tally, as authorities looked to open more sectors of the economy.
On Sunday, India’s total of 78,761 new cases exceeded the previous global record of 77,299 in the US on July 16, a Reuters tally of official data showed.
The world’s second-most populous country has been posting the highest single-day caseload in the world since 7 Aug ust. At 3.62 million cases, India is fast catching up to the US and Brazil in terms of total cases but it has a lower death rate.
India’s coronavirus deaths went up by 971 in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 64,469, the health ministry said. The huge numbers have got authorities worried, especially with people in rural areas largely abandoning rules aimed at stopping the spread, officials say.
Kumar Sanjay Krishna, the chief secretary of Assam, one of the worst-hit states, attributed the increasing cases to more testing, the opening of the economy and complacency.
“People are not following precautionary steps and are violating the Covid-19 protocols,” he said on Twitter.
“From Monday onwards there shall be visible strict action taken against those who violate the norms of social distancing or found not wearing a face mask.”
But at the same time, fears are growing for the world’s fifth-largest economy, with a contraction in gross domestic product for the June quarter expected to be announced later on Monday.
Hoping to avert more serious economic damage, the government is relaxing restrictions and has announced that urban metro trains can resume services from 7 September.
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In the UK, independent shops are unlikely to join the government’s push to get workers back to the office, according to the body representing the sector, after enjoying a boost in sales thanks to a drop in commuting.
Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association (BIRA), said members in suburban areas and towns had reported positive sales throughout lockdown and beyond as they pick up business that would usually go to those working in the city centre.
He said: “You won’t find us on this call to get people back to the office for many reasons. I think that horse has bolted, and I understand why people are calling for it but people will come back on a more flexible approach … City centres now have to think, with fewer people commuting, what do we do to bring people back in?”
Surinder Josan, the owner of DIY in Birmingham, a shop selling tools and other items used in the home and on activities such as gardening
, said: “We entered the lockdown quite nervous thinking we would have to coast for six months … so we stayed closed for two weeks and spent that time clearing up and tidying up. While we were doing that our lights were on and the doors were closed and people were knocking asking to purchase stuff for repairs, and the phone was ringing.
“Then when the sun was shining, people came more. We put a notice outside saying, ‘Wait outside to be served’, and we were serving people one by one and using PPE. We tried to do the best we could.”
He added that as lockdown has eased customers have started drifting back. “Whereas queues at big stores were horrendous and getting something online would take weeks, customers were coming back to us and we saw customers we had never seen before,” he said.
Another business doing well is the children’s shop the Baker of Small Stuff in Sheffield. Hellen Stirling, the owner, said: “We were lucky because the day we were told to close, we had already got our website set up. I put all my efforts and work into the website which went bonkers in a brilliant way.” She added that there was a feeling in the air to “shop with your local high street and community” which has driven a lot of custom.
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Hello everyone. I am running the Guardian’s global coronavirus feed today, bringing you the latest updates from around the world. Please do get in touch with me while I work to share any comments and news tips. My contact details are below.
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The Paris local municipality said on Monday that it would look to make free Covid-19 testing available in all of the capital’s 20 districts (arrondissements), as authorities battle against signs of a re-emergence of the virus in France.
Reuters reports that the Paris mayor’s office said in a statement that from Monday onwards, there would be three permanent laboratories set up to conduct free Covid-19 tests, as well as two other mobile laboratories that would go around the capital.
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The South China Morning Post is reporting that Hong Kong schools will be able to resume face-to-face classes in phases from the week of 21 September, following the drop in the number of new Covid-19 cases in the city.
Education officials said earlier this month that on-site lessons for Hong Kong’s 900,000 pupils at kindergartens, primary and secondary schools would be suspended until further notice for the new academic year, after teachers were told to move classes online during the city’s third wave of infections.
Secretary for education Kevin Yeung Yun-hung will announce the detailed arrangements at a press conference on Monday afternoon.
Updated
The scientist leading Oxford University’s push for a coronavirus vaccine has warned of an increasing risk of disease outbreaks spreading from animals to people, Press Association reports.
Professor Sarah Gilbert said human activity is driving the rising threat, adding the risk is unlikely to diminish in the future as globalisation continues.
“Greater population density, greater travel, deforestation - all of these things make it more likely that these outbreaks will happen and then something will spread,” she told The Independent.
“Because of the way things have been going in the world, it’s more likely we’ll have zoonotic infections causing outbreaks in the future.”
Most researchers believe Covid-19 emerged in bats and infected humans via another animal, probably in a market in Wuhan, China. Other deadly diseases such as Ebola, Sars and the West Nile Virus have also originated in animals.
The Oxford project is awaiting results of phase three trials of its vaccine and, if a high level of efficacy is proven, the team hopes it could be available be the end of the year.
Summary
- The United States is approaching six million coronavirus infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. It currently sits on 5,996,431, with 183,066 deaths. The milestone comes amid rising infection in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
- Australia has reported a record daily toll of 41 deaths from Covid-19, all in the state of Victoria. The southern state has been gripped by an outbreak that prompted a strict, stage-four lockdown. The Victorian Department of Health confirmed that 33 of the 41 new deaths were aged care residents who had died in the weeks leading up to 27 August but were only reported to the department by the facilities on Sunday. Next weekend the state premier will outline a plan for moving Melbourne out of stage-four lockdown.
- China has reported 17 new Covid-19 cases, up from 9 reported a day earlier, the country’s health authority said on Monday. The National Health Commission said all of the new cases were imported infections involving travellers returning from abroad, marking the 15th straight day of no local infections for the country.
- India reported 78,512 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, just off its record high of 78,761, the day before.
- The number of doctors in Indonesia who have died after becoming infected with Covid-19 has passed 100, according to the Indonesian Doctors Association. The country is facing one of the worst outbreaks in south-east Asia, and there are growing concerns that a recent rise in cases is leaving hospitals overwhelmed.
- New Zealand has reported five new community cases of transmission of Covid-19, and four in managed isolation. All of the new community cases are linked to the Auckland cluster.
- Germany’s confirmed coronavirus cases increased by 610 to 242,381, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
- Coronavirus cases in Colombia surpassed 600,000 on Sunday as deaths from the virus approach 19,400, ahead of the end to more than five months of lockdown. The Andean country has 607,938 cases of the virus according to the health ministry, after it reported 8,024 cases on Sunday. Daily cases have begun to fall since their peak on 20 August of 13,056.
Indonesia: 100 doctors die from coronavirus
The number of doctors in Indonesia who have died after becoming infected with Covid-19 has passed 100, according to the Indonesian Doctors Association.
The country is facing one of the worst outbreaks in south-east Asia, and there are growing concerns that a recent rise in cases is leaving hospitals overwhelmed.
On Sunday, Indonesia reported 2,858 new infections, according to the health ministry – higher than the past month’s daily average.
On Thursday, Jakarta governor, Anies Baswedan, halted plans to reopen bars and nightlife in the capital, where some local hospitals have warned they are approaching full capacity. Epidemiologists have linked the rise in infections to recent independence day celebrations, and increased travel during the Islamic New Year.=
Since the start of the outbreak, 172,053 cases and 7,343 deaths have been recorded. Last week, a photograph of a doctor, dressed in PPE, hunched over the coffin of her dead husband, also a doctor, was shared widely on social media.
Private tuition centres shut for the first time and traffic was lighter in South Korea’s capital on Monday, the first working day of tighter social-distancing rules designed to halt a second wave of coronavirus outbreaks, Reuters reports.
South Korea took the unprecedented step on Friday to restrict the operation of restaurants, coffee shops and so-called cram schools in the Seoul metropolitan area, with churches, nightclubs and most public schools having already been closed.
Fewer cars and people were on the streets of Seoul during the morning rush hours as more companies encouraged employees to work from home.
Private after-school tuition academies, which operated as usual in March during South Korea’s first wave of coronavirus infections, were shuttered. There are 25,000 cram schools in Seoul and nationally three out of four children – from grade 1 to grade 12 – attended such classes.
The government has cut staffing at public offices, while many corporations, including tech giants Samsung Electronics, LG and SK Hynix, have expanded or reinstated work-from-home policies.
Onsite dining at restaurants, pubs and bakeries in the Seoul area are banned after 9 p.m. until Sunday, while coffeehouse chains are restricted to takeout and delivery.
South Korea has reported total infections of 19,947 and 324 deaths from Covid-19.
Earlier we reported the Times of India saying the country had passed 80,000 new infections for the first time, which would be a national and global record. However the figure on the Indian government website now says 78,512. Reuters news agency is also reporting the lower figure.
On Sunday, India’s total of 78,761 new cases exceeded the previous record of 77,299 in the United States in mid July.
At 3.62m total cases, India is fast catching up to these two countries in terms of cumulative caseload, but it has relatively lower death rate.
India’s deaths from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, went up by 971 in the past 24 hours, taking the tally to 64,469, the health ministry said.
Updated
Japan has recorded 600 new coronavirus cases, as new cases continue to decline from the recent peak of 1,605 on 7 August. The seven-day average for new cases is 757.
In South Korea, new infections have stayed under 200 for a second day in a row, Yonhap reports.
The country reported 248 cases on Monday, including 238 local infections, and 299 cases on Sunday. This likely reflects lower testing on a weekend.
Updated
In Australia’s worst-affected state, Victoria, the premier Daniel Andrews is preparing to outline an exit strategy for the state’s tough lockdowns, which have become a major flashpoint with Australia’s federal government.
Victoria logged 73 new cases on Monday, the lowest daily increase since early July.
It also recorded another 41 deaths but only eight occurred in the previous 24 hours.
The remaining 33 were added to the tally after being reported to the health department.
The national coronavirus death toll stands at 652.
The Victorian premier will outline a plan to ease social and business restrictions on 6 September.
“It is too early today to settle that road map and to lock that in,” Andrews told reporters.
“Another week’s data is critically important to make sure the strategy continues to work.”
Victoria’s restrictions are dragging down the national economy and the federal government has been pushing the state to re-open more quickly.
Melbourne’s six-week stage four restrictions - including a nightly curfew - are due to end on 13 September.
But Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Nick Coatsworth said “it’s hard to see that happening”.
“I think the numbers need to be a lot less than they are now.”
Coatsworth compared the state to NSW and Queensland, which are recording fewer than 10 new daily cases.
Updated
And now, for something completely different...
Lady Gaga wore a staggering array of masks at MTV Video Music awards, at which she won five awards.
Did not think she would crop up during this coronavirus coverage, but there you go. Nothing surprises in this pandemic anymore.
Adrian Horton reports:
India surpasses 80,000 new cases in a single day – report
India appears to have passed a grim milestone.
The Times of India - which has consistently been at the forefront of reporting the country’s figures - is reporting that India recorded 80,092 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday - a new record for the world’s largest democracy and the first country in the world to cross the 80,000 case-threshold in a single day since the beginning of the pandemic.
India has recorded more than 3.5m cases of the novel coronavirus, and more than 63,000 deaths.
Updated
Germany reports 610 new cases
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 610 to 242,381, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
The reported death toll rose by three to 9,298, the tally showed.
Chinese state media, the Global Times, has reported that millions of college students in Wuhan have returned to campus for the first time in six months.
Millions of college students start their new term and return to #Wuhan, previously the hardest-hit city in China by coronavirus, after being stranded at home for over half a year. pic.twitter.com/FxzWNE5r69
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 31, 2020
Here’s some more on New Zealand’s nine new cases from our reporter Charles Anderson:
There are nine new cases of Covid-19 in Auckland as the city moves out of lockdown and allows travel throughout the country.
It has been almost three weeks since Auckland moved to Alert Level 3, which shuttered schools and many businesses.
However, now Auckland is now at Level 2.5, while the rest of the country remains at Level 2. That means Aucklanders have harsher restrictions, with gatherings capped at 10 people and authorised funerals and tangihanga at 50. From today, masks are also mandatory across the country on public transport and planes for everyone over 12.
All of the new Covid-19 cases are linked to the original Auckland cluster which sparked the lockdown. There are 11 people with Covid-19 in hospital with a total confirmed case number of 1387.
These new cases come as Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern managed fall out from wrong advice coming from the Ministry of Health which suggested all people in South and west Auckland should get Covid-19 tests.
She said she was “incredibly angry” at the communication breakdown saying from only ministers should be relied upon to deliver “significant” Covid-19 updates – not the ministry’s website.
Ardern yesterday also asked New Zealanders not to leave their homes without wearing a mask.
“We know masks protect you and the people around you,” she said. “They limit the chance of Covid-19 spreading in places where it is often harder to distance yourself and to trace people.”
Health and education minister Chris Hipkins said to parents who might be concerned about sending children back to school: “Do get your kids back in school. Their futures depend on this.”
The move to Level 2.5 comes as some experts say that they would have preferred Auckland to stay longer in Level 3 to ensure the cluster was contained.
Otago University epidemiologist Professor Michael Baker said it was up to Aucklanders to stick to the rules, use contract tracing apps and get tested if they had symptoms, if they wanted the virus to be brought under control.
Yesterday there were two new community cases in New Zealand, one of them a doctor in Tokoroa.
France’s education minister acknowledged on Sunday that not all of the country’s schools can safely reopen Tuesday.
With several thousand new infections now reported in France every day, Jean-Michel Blanquer told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper that some classes will remain closed when the nationwide reopening begins, but as few as possible.
French doctors published an appeal Saturday saying that the government’s anti-virus measures for schools aren’t strict enough. They urged masks for children as young as six and a mix of online and in-person schooling. Spain announced last week that children would be required to wear masks at school from six.
Currently French schools are set to resume largely as normal, but with masks required all day for everyone 11 and over and some restrictions on movements and gatherings.
Updated
Just back to Australia and there are 10 new cases of Covid in the most populous state of New South Wales. Somewhat reassuringly, six of those are in quarantine. All four locally acquired cases are linked to a cluster in the centre of Sydney.
The premier of the state, Gladys Berejiklian, asks people to consider their movements as the weather warms up.
Today is the last day of winter and I’m pleased we got through the winter months as well as we did, and now that the warmer weather is upon us can I please ask everybody to think about their activities when they’re out of doors ... just make sure you keep your social distance.
She says August and September are normally peak times for flu, but people should assume that if they are sick, it’s Covid.
Normally August-September is the peak time for the flu but because we’re hand sanitising and keeping our distances those numbers haven’t materialised, but that means if you do have a symptom you should assume it’s Covid and not the flu.
You can stay across all of Australia’s coronavirus news on the Australian blog below:
Updated
New Zealand reports nine new cases of Covid-19
New Zealand has reported five new community cases of transmission of Covid-19, and four in managed isolation. All of the new community cases are linked to the Auckland cluster.
The city has now moved down to alert level 2, with extra restrictions, including wearing face masks on public transport. Gatherings within the Auckland region may involve a maximum of 10 people.
Updated
China marks 15 days of no local infections, health commission says
China has reported 17 new Covid-19 cases, up from 9 reported a day earlier, the country’s health authority said on Monday.
The National Health Commission said all of the new cases were imported infections involving travellers returning from abroad, marking the 15th straight day of no local infections for the country.
The number of asymptomatic cases rose to 19 from 4 reported a day earlier. China’s total number of COVID-19 infections now stands at 85,048, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
Mexico’s health ministry on Sunday reported 4,129 new confirmed novel coronavirus infections and 339 additional fatalities, bringing the total number to 595,841 cases and 64,158 deaths.
Still on Australia, and we are expecting a news conference from the premier of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, in about half an hour. There will also be a press conference around then from the premier of the neighbouring state of New South Wales, Gladys Berejiklian, where no doubt she will be giving an update on the growing cluster in the centre of Sydney. You can follow it live on our Australian blog below.
Updated
Australia reports record death toll
The Australian state of Victoria has recorded 41 new deaths from Covid-19 – the highest total for the country during the pandemic. The southern state has been gripped by an outbreak that prompted a strict, stage-four lockdown. The Victorian Department of Health confirmed that 33 of the 41 new deaths were aged care residents who had died in the weeks leading up to 27 August but were only reported to the department by the facilities on Sunday.
The country’s previous highest daily toll was 25 on 17 August.
#COVID19VicData for 31 Aug 2020. There were 73 new cases and sadly 41 deaths. Today's deaths total includes 22 people who died in the weeks leading up to 27 August and were reported to DHHS by aged care facilities yesterday. More info will be available later this morning. pic.twitter.com/yDzeMKzYqE
— VicGovDHHS (@VicGovDHHS) August 31, 2020
Updated
India has registered a record new 78,761 coronavirus cases, the world’s highest single-day increase since the pandemic began, just as the government began easing restrictions to help the country’s battered economy.
The US set the previous record on 17 July with 77,638 daily infections.
The surge raised India’s tally to more than 3.5m, and came as the government announced the reopening of subways in Delhi. A limited number of sports and religious events will also be allowed from next month.
A country of 1.4 billion people, India has the fastest-growing daily coronavirus caseload of any country in the world. It has reported more than 75,000 infections for the fourth consecutive day.
One of the reasons is testing: India conducts nearly 1m tests every day, compared with 200,000 two months ago.
You can read our full story below.
Colombia passes 600,000 cases ahead of easing restrictions
Coronavirus cases in Colombia surpassed 600,000 on Sunday as deaths from the virus approach 19,400, ahead of the end to more than five months of lockdown.
The Andean country has 607,938 confirmed cases of the virus according to the health ministry, after it reported 8,024 cases on Sunday. Daily cases have begun to fall since their peak on 20 August of 13,056.
President Ivan Duque declared a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of the virus in late March. The measure will end on Monday when the country begins a month-long “selective” quarantine.
Many sectors have already gradually reopened. Under the new measures restaurants can function at 25% capacity but large events such as concerts remain banned.
Intensive care units in Bogota are at about 73% capacity, according to local health authorities. The capital is home to more than a third of Colombia’s cases.
#ReporteCOVID19 - 30 de agosto:
— MinSaludCol (@MinSaludCol) August 30, 2020
10.047 recuperados
8.024 nuevos casos
300 fallecidos
Muestras:
PCR: 26.879
Antígeno: 3.357
Total:
450.621 recuperados
607.938 casos de COVID-19
19.364 fallecidos
2.715.591 muestras procesadas
136.702 casos activoshttps://t.co/SiKTpTCQ3W pic.twitter.com/H6vlnS8aPV
Updated
Still in the UK, and Archie Bland reports that police received dozens of reports of illegal gatherings over the weekend and began issuing the first fines after new rules in England penalising organisers of illegal raves came into force.
Two organisers at a rave in Banwen, West Glamorgan, that attracted an estimated 3,000 people were handed fixed penalty notices for £10,000 on Sunday. Officers remained at the scene in to the night along with about 1,000 people, South Wales police said.
Elsewhere, officers in the West Midlands, Essex, Norfolk and West Yorkshire dealt with reports of unlicensed music events and the flouting of lockdown restrictions at house and street parties, though most forces said they would seek to remind people of their responsibilities before imposing fines.
The restrictions, in place since Friday, were prompted by repeated incidents of illegal raves during lockdown, which the home secretary, Priti Patel, said represented “the most serious breaches of social distancing restrictions”.
Here’s Archie’s full story:
Meanwhile, Piers Corbyn, the older brother of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, received a £10,000 fixed penalty under new coronavirus laws restricting public gatherings of more than 30 people.
The weather forecaster and climate change denier was arrested and fined for his part in organising Saturday’s demonstration in central London against lockdown restrictions.
He said he was arrested on the stage set up in Trafalgar Square at the end of the event, while protesters marched off down Whitehall.
The 73-year-old told the Guardian: “After the rally had finished, I was saying goodbye to people … I was just looking around thinking I had better go now, and then they [the police] just grabbed me from behind.
The United Kingdom recorded 1,715 daily confirmed cases on Sunday, the highest level since 4 June. It comes amid concerns about school children returning to classrooms this week for the first time since March.
School leaders have told the Guardian of Covid-19 forcing some in England “to juggle pupil and financial safety”.
“I cannot plan to have a cleaner on site if I have no idea if I will be able to claim against the fund, so I am balancing safety against financial stability,” Paul Gosling of Exeter Road community primary school in Devon.
The government’s coronavirus schools fund, which was introduced to cover the exceptional costs associated with the pandemic, closed on 21 July. A notice on its website says there are plans to open a “second claims window” in the autumn.
You can read our full story below:
Still in the US and the governor of New York state, Andrew Cuomo, dished out some scathing criticism of President Trump’s handling of the pandemic on Sunday.
“National threats require national leadership. It’s been 6 months without a national strategy on testing or mask mandate,” he tweeted.
The White House has learned nothing from COVID.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 30, 2020
National threats require national leadership. It's been 6 months without a national strategy on testing or mask mandate.
Only the federal government has the power to go to war with COVID.
They are failing and the nation suffers.
“Don’t test and if we can’t find the cases — they don’t exist. Great, then let’s cure cancer by stopping screenings. Absurd!” he tweeted, criticising President Trump’s assertion that the US only has more cases because it tests more.
The Democratic governor said the state carried out more than 100,000 on Saturday and found 698 positive.
“We reported over 100,000 tests yesterday. Highest number to date. Our infection rate remains under 1%. The takeaway? More tests does not equal more cases. And masks work,” he tweeted.
Today's update on the numbers:
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 30, 2020
Of the 100,022 tests reported yesterday, 698 were positive (0.69% of total).
Total hospitalizations fell to 429.
Sadly, there were 8 COVID fatalities yesterday. pic.twitter.com/F77StgXZ6J
Many health officials and at least 33 states have rejected the new Covid-19 testing guidance issued by the Trump administration last week that said those exposed to the virus and without symptoms may not need testing.
Public health officials believe the United States needs to test more frequently to find asymptomatic carriers to slow the spread of the disease.
Updated
The US is fast approaching six million infections, as cases grow in several Midwestern states. According to Johns Hopkins’ figures, cases stand at 5,992,401, with 183,020 deaths.
Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota have recently reported record one-day increases in new cases while Montana and Idaho are seeing record numbers of hospitalised patients.
Many of the new cases in Iowa are in the counties that are home to the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, which are holding some in-person classes. Colleges and universities around the country have seen outbreaks after students returned to campus, forcing some to switch to online-only learning.
Nationally, the numbers of new cases have declined, with the US Centers for Disease Control reporting the seven-day rolling average of new infections has dropped to 41,573. That’s down from the peak of 66,960 in late July. The seven-day average death toll stands at 928. It dropped under 1,000 deaths per day on 22 August.
US coronavirus infections as per the US CDC count. The seven-day rolling average for new cases is 41,573. pic.twitter.com/MLcC8D4Lyh
— Alison Rourke (@AlisonRourke) August 30, 2020
US deaths from coronavirus from the US CDC count. The seven-day rolling average for deaths stands at 928. pic.twitter.com/OpasSkGtzm
— Alison Rourke (@AlisonRourke) August 30, 2020
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Alison Rourke.
The United States is approaching six million coronavirus infections, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. The milestone comes amid rising infection in some Midwestern states, including Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota.
In other coronavirus developments:
- The UK recorded 1,715 daily confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, the highest level since 4 June.
- Coronavirus cases in Colombia passed 600,000 on Sunday as deaths from the virus approach 19,400, ahead of the end to more than five months of lockdown.
- India set a global daily coronavirus record on Sunday, reporting 78,761 new infections. The US set the previous record on 17 July with 77,638 daily infections.
- In New Zealand, masks become mandatory from Monday on public transport and flights, as restriction levels in the biggest city of Auckland are reduced, following a cluster that ended the country’s more than 100-day run with no local transmission.
- Brazil registered 566 additional coronavirus deaths over the past 24 hours and 16,158 new cases, the health ministry said on Sunday evening.
- Not all classrooms in France can safely reopen on Tuesday, the country’s education minister acknowledged on Sunday, as a persistent rise in coronavirus infections jeopardises the government’s push to get 12.9 million schoolchildren back into class this week.
- Jordan reported 73 new cases of coronavirus on Sunday, its highest daily tally since the start of the outbreak, bringing its total infections to 1,966, with 15 deaths.
- Ghana will reopen air borders to international travel from 1 September after closing them in March to limit the spread of the virus.
Updated
