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Summary
Here the latest key developments at a glance:
- The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a record increase in coronavirus infections globally on Saturday, a rise of 212,326 in 24 hours.
- The US state of Texas has recorded 8,258 new cases in the 24 hours to Saturday, the highest single-day surge since the pandemic started, taking overall infections in Texas to 191,790. Current Covid-19 hospitalisations rose by 238 in one day to a record high of 7,890.
- The US state of Arizona reported 2,695 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, bringing its total to 94,553. The number of hospital admissions for Covid-19 increased by 100 to a record high of 3,113 on Friday.
- The number of confirmed infections in the US state of Florida increased by a record 11,458 on Saturday. This is the second time in three days that the figure has increased by more than 10,000.
- The Philippines recorded a record 7,027 new infections this week, pushing the overall tally in the country to 41,830.
- Brazil recorded 37,923 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, as well as 1,091 deaths.
- Over the 24 hours to Saturday, 1,008 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in Israel, raising the number of active cases in the country to 10,060.
- The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that it was discontinuing its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir in hospitalised patients with Covid-19 after they failed to reduce mortality.
- The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, is likely to face further questions after his own father refused to refute whether he had acted improperly flouting UK travel advice to visit his villa in Greece.
- Jordan on Saturday began putting electronic bracelets on travellers who have arrived recently in the kingdom to ensure that they observe home-quarantine.
- The 20-member cabinet in Africa’s last absolute kingdom of eSwatini has been ordered into isolation after one minister contracted coronavirus.
- Catalonia has put more than 200,000 people in the north-eastern Spanish region back into lockdown after more than 350 cases of coronavirus were detected in the area.
That’s all from me for today, it’s nearly midnight in London, but my colleagues in Australia will start bringing you the latest updates shortly. Thanks for reading, and writing in.
Updated
A weekly Kansas newspaper whose publisher is a county Republican party chairman posted a cartoon on its Facebook page likening the Democratic governor’s order requiring people to wear masks in public to the roundup and murder of millions of Jews during the Holocaust.
The cartoon on the Anderson County Review’s Facebook page depicts governor Laura Kelly wearing a mask featuring a Jewish Star of David, next to a drawing of people being loaded on to train carriages and with the caption “Lockdown Laura says: Put on your mask ... and step onto the cattle car.”
Reposting, I found this cartoon aimed @GovLauraKelly on the Facebook page of the Anderson County Review. #ksleg #ksed pic.twitter.com/jcWupBJnhJ
— sam zeff (@samzeff) July 4, 2020
The newspaper posted the cartoon on Friday, the day that Kelly’s mask order aimed at stemming the spread of the coronavirus took effect.
Publisher Dane Hicks, who is also Anderson County’s GOP chairman, told the Associated Press on Saturday that he would answer emailed questions about the cartoon once he could reach a computer.
His newspaper is based in the county seat of Garnett, about 65 miles (105 kilometres) southwest of Kansas City, and has a circulation of about 2,100, according to the Kansas Press Association.
Kelly, who is Catholic, issued a statement saying: “Mr Hicks’ decision to publish anti-Semitic imagery is deeply offensive and he should remove it immediately.”
Updated
Brazil recorded 37,923 new confirmed coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, as well as 1,091 deaths, the health ministry said on Saturday.
Brazil has registered more than 1.5 million cases since the pandemic began, while cumulative deaths total 64,265, according to the ministry.
Updated
Italy is carrying out tests on 180 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean with a view to transferring them to a quarantine vessel in Sicily, an interior ministry source has said.
The migrants were on the Ocean Viking ship operated by SOS Méditerranée for over a week, with fights and suicide attempts onboard prompting the charity to declare a state of emergency on Friday, Agence France-Presse reports.
A medical team sent by authorities in Pozzallo, Sicily, “ascertained the absence of particular health problems and also reported that some tensions that had been registered on the ship are being overcome”, the ministry source said on Saturday.
The medical team is testing the migrants for the Covid-19 virus after which they will be transferred to a quarantine ship currently in Porto Empedocle, also in Sicily.
Updated
A man photographed fleeing smoke and debris as the south tower of the World Trade Center crumbled just a block away on September 11, 2001, has died from coronavirus, his family said.
The Palm Beach Post reported that Stephen Cooper, an electrical engineer from New York who lived part-time in the Delray Beach, Florida area, died 28 March at Delray Medical Center due to Covid-19. He was 78.
The photo, captured by an Associated Press photographer, was published in newspapers and magazines around the world and is featured at the 9/11 Memorial Museum in New York.
“He didn’t even know the photograph was taken,” said Janet Rashes, Cooper’s partner of 33 years.
“All of a sudden, he’s looking in Time magazine one day and he sees himself and says, ‘Oh my God. That’s me.’ He was amazed. Couldn’t believe it.”
The photo shows Cooper, who was 60 at the time, with a manila envelope tucked under his left arm. He and several other men were in a desperate sprint as a wall of debris from the collapsing tower loomed behind them.
Updated
Texas sees record single-day rise in cases
The US state of Texas has recorded 8,258 new cases in the 24 hours to Saturday, the highest single-day surge in the state since the pandemic started.
The overall number of confirmed infections in Texas now stands at 191,790, the health department said.
Current Covid-19 hospitalisations rose by 238 in one day to a record high of 7,890.
Texas governor Greg Abbott took to Twitter to wish Americans a happy Fourth of July, earning a barrage of criticism from the public.
Thank you to those who fought and continue to fight for our great nation.
— Gov. Greg Abbott (@GovAbbott) July 4, 2020
⠀
Have a safe and happy Fourth of July. 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/4hs1dehTCf
His critics are bitterly divided, however. One camp is voicing disappointment in his leadership amid rising infections, while the other is clamouring for his resignation after he issued an executive order on Thursday requiring Texans to wear face coverings in public in counties with 20 or more Covid-19 cases.
Updated
Record weekly rise in infections in the Philippines
The Philippines’ coronavirus infection tally has climbed to 41,830 after the Department of Health on Saturday announced 1,494 more infections, the Philippine Star reports.
Of these new cases, 403 were newly validated and labelled “fresh”, which means that test results were released to the patient within the last three days, while the remaining 1,091 were “late” (results released four days ago or more).
The health undersecretary, Maria Rosario Vergeire, however, said that from next week the department would change its case bulletin reporting protocol to exclude the “fresh” and “late” categories introduced in late May.
This week saw 7,027 additional infections on top of the 34,803 recorded as of last Saturday - the most reported in a single week so far.
An average of 1,003 cases was reported every day since Sunday, which is also the highest the country has seen within a single week.
Updated
The 20-member cabinet in Africa’s last absolute kingdom of eSwatini has been ordered into isolation after one minister contracted coronavirus, the government said on Saturday.
The public works and transport minister, Ndlaluhlaza Ndwandwe, was found to be infected after a routine test on Tuesday.
“Following this development, all cabinet members will isolate with immediate effect and work from home,” government spokesperson Sabelo Dlamini said in a statement.
Numbers of detected coronavirus infections have climbed to 984, including 13 deaths in the southern African country with a population of around 1.3 million people.
Prime minister Ambrose Dlamini warned in April that the health system in the country - formerly known as Swaziland - would struggle with an upsurge of infections due to inadequate resources, Agence France-Press reports.
Research published in The Lancet late last month warned that countries such as eSwatini, with the world’s highest prevalence of HIV/Aids, needed to be particularly vigilant during the pandemic.
Updated
The rising toll of Covid-19 deaths is overwhelming the Bolivian city of Cochabamba, where desperate relatives of one apparent victim of coronavirus left his coffin in the street for several hours on Saturday to protest difficulties in getting him buried.
Neighbour Remberto Arnez told the Associated Press that the 62-year-old man had died on Sunday and his body had been in his home ever since, but that this was risky because of the possible contagion.
After a few hours, funeral workers arrived and took the coffin to a cemetery.
Police Col. Iván Rojas told a news conference that the city is collecting about 17 bodies a day, which is overwhelming the police personnel and funeral workers in the city of some 630,000 people.
“The crematorium oven is small, [but] that is where the bodies are [being collected],” said labour minister Óscar Mercado, who told reporters that officials were preparing 250 new burial plots in the city’s main cemetery.
The Andean nation has reported 36,818 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 1,320 deaths.
Updated
As some countries and regions reintroduce restrictions and impose local lockdowns, Thailand’s nightlife venues have been allowed to reopen on 1 July after a three-month closure.
My colleague Rebecca Ratcliffe reports from Bangkok.
Updated
Israel is one of several countries so far that is seemingly paying the price for lifting lockdown restrictions early, as the government tries to grapple with rising infections.
Over the last 24 hours, 1,008 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19, raising the number of active cases in Israel to 10,060, according to data released by the health ministry.
Some 326 people have died from the virus.
Israel’s higher education system announced on Saturday that exams will no longer be administered on campus and will move fully online instead, Haaretz reports.
According to Palestinian health figures, there are 994 coronavirus cases in those under the age of 18 in the West Bank, including 406 children under the age of nine.
Only 95 of cases are in those over the age of 70. A rise in cases has not yet been reflected in a rise in hospitalisations and serious cases.
Updated
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that it was discontinuing its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir in hospitalised patients with Covid-19 after they failed to reduce mortality.
“These interim trial results show that hydroxychloroquine and lopinavir/ritonavir produce little or no reduction in the mortality of hospitalised Covid-19 patients when compared to standard of care.
“Solidarity trial investigators will interrupt the trials with immediate effect,” the WHO said in a statement, referring to large multi-country trials that the agency is leading.
The UN agency said that the decision, taken on the recommendation of the trial’s international steering committee, does not affect other studies where the drugs are used for non-hospitalised patients or as a prophylaxis.
Another arm of the WHO-led trial is looking at the potential effect of Gilead’s antiviral drug remdesivir on Covid-19.
Updated
WHO reports record daily rise in global cases
The World Health Organization (WHO) reports a record increase in coronavirus infections globally, which have risen by 212,326 in 24 hours.
The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil and India, according to a daily report. The previous WHO record for new cases was 189,077 on 28 June.
Deaths remained steady at about 5,000 a day.
Global coronavirus cases exceeded 11 million on Friday, according to a Reuters tally, marking another milestone in the spread of the disease that has killed more than half a million people in seven months.
Agence France-Presse has compiled a handy overview of places where fresh outbreaks of the coronavirus around the world have led to renewed, more localised lockdowns, such as in parts of Catalonia and in Melbourne Saturday.
Europe
SPAIN: lockdown on Saturday for around 200,000 residents in a section of the northeastern Catalonia region. Nobody is allowed to enter or leave the area, gatherings of more than 10 people are banned and visits to retirement homes halted.
PORTUGAL: lockdown at home has been in place since 1 July for some 700,000 inhabitants in the Lisbon region, for a period of at least two weeks.
GERMANY: local lockdowns were announced on 23 June for more than 600,000 people in two neighbouring districts Guetersloh and Warendorf in North Rhine-Westphalia state. Coesfeld, a district in western Germany, was locked down on 18 May.
BRITAIN: on 30 June the city of Leicester began a localised two-week lockdown with non-essential shops and schools shutting.
ITALY: some 700 people were ordered on 22 June to remain indoors in four council housing blocks in Mondragone, 60 kilometres north of Naples on the coast in the Campania region.
Asia
CHINA: the central city of Wuhan came out of lockdown at the start of April but authorities swiftly reimposed restrictions on 70 residential neighbourhoods.
INDIA: the southern state of Tamil Nadu ordered new restrictions in Chennai, its capital, and surrounding districts as of 19 June in measures that affected around 15 million people.
AZERBAIJAN: reinstated a tight lockdown from 22 June to 1 August.
Americas
UNITED STATES: several states have halted plans to reopen or relax their lockdowns, with bars closing in California, Texas and Florida, as well as beach closing in California and Florida.
ARGENTINA: a toughening of lockdown measures in Buenos Aires and its surrounding area has been imposed from 1 to 17 July. The country’s second city Cordoba also rolled back on easing its lockdown measures on 19 May.
PANAMA: a return to lockdown from 8 June in the capital and a neighbouring province.
Middle East
LEBANON: a four-day lockdown was imposed on 13 May.
Oceania
AUSTRALIA: thousands of residents in several high-rise apartments in Melbourne went into lockdown for at least five days on Saturday.
The United Kingdom’s death toll from confirmed cases of coronavirus has risen by 67 to 44,198 in the last 24 hours, the government said on Saturday.
For the first time in 105 days, people across the UK flocked to pubs, beer gardens and other licensed premises today.
My colleague Mattha Busby has more on people’s experiences and perceptions in East London:
The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, is likely to face further questions after his own father refused to refute whether he had acted improperly flouting UK travel advice to visit his villa in Greece.
At the centre of the commotion since his arrival in the country – via Bulgaria – on Wednesday, Stanley Johnson was asked, directly, whether he regretted the decision. “I’m not going to say whether my actions are correct or not – in any case, what happened, happened,” he told reporters who tracked him down to his mountain villa in Pelion overlooking the Aegean sea.
“I’ll go back on the tenth but people are longing to get here. And this is a country which has everything. But here I am, how could you be here and not look around at this fantastic place?”
The 79-year-old, who was caught on camera with a towel thrown over his left shoulder after clearly having been for a swim, said it was vital that an air bridge was created “as quick as we can” to facilitate travel between the two nations. “How wonderful it would be, if quite quickly, the two governments could come to some arrangement.”
The high incidence of coronavirus cases in Britain spurred Athens earlier this week to announce it would extend the suspension of direct flights from the UK until 15 July. Those bent on getting to Greece are currently forced to come via third countries but it is not encouraged. The British government has urged citizens against all but essential travel.
Explaining his trip earlier as “essential business” Johnson senior said his visit had been motivated by the need to “Covid-proof my property in view of the upcoming letting season”.
The former euro MP, who now supports his son’s Brexit policies, has long rented out the two-story Villa Irene to UK holidaymakers in what has become a nice little earner for his family, as we explain in our story today.
More here:
Updated
Jordan on Saturday began putting electronic bracelets on travellers who have arrived recently in the kingdom to ensure that they observe home-quarantine against the spread of coronavirus, an official said, according to Agence France-Presse.
People arriving in Jordan must isolate for 14 days at hotels designated by the authorities on the shores of the Dead Sea, west of the capital Amman.
After that period, they must self-isolate for an additional 14 days at home, according to Nizar Obeidat, spokesman for Jordan’s virus task force.
Jordan imposed tough measures, including curfews and the deployment of drones, to curb the spread of Covid-19, before easing policies in early June.
Updated
Portugal on Saturday denounced as “absurd” Britain’s decision to exclude it from the list of countries to which Britons can travel without having to observe quarantine restrictions on their return.
The row comes as both countries record a coronavirus infections rate of 4,000 cases per million inhabitants, according to an AFP tally compiled from national data, although Britain registers a significantly higher death rate.
“The question of quarantine is absurd,” said foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva in an interview with state television station RTP.
“It’s always horrible to compare the figures of an illness, and deaths,” he said.
“But it’s absurd that the United Kingdom is imposing a quarantine on passengers returning from a country that, with regard to all the indicators for the pandemic, has better results than the United Kingdom itself,” he said.
British visitors are the biggest part of Portugal’s tourism market, with 2.1 million visitors in 2019 generating 3.3 billion euros.
Portugal’s death rate for the coronavirus is at 156 per million inhabitants, while Britain’s is at 650 - with some observers arguing the real death rate is higher.
But on Friday, when Britain announced a list of more than 70 countries or territories that would be exempt from quarantine measures from 10 July, Portugal was one of the few EU countries not on the list.
Santos Silva acknowledged there was concern about a spike in infections in districts just north of Lisbon where lockdown measures have been reimposed.
Malawi’s new president Lazarus Chakwera on Saturday ordered his inauguration ceremony be scaled down amid a surge of coronavirus cases, dampening excitement around his election win.
Chakwera was sworn in last Sunday for a five-year term, hours after unseating Peter Mutharika in a re-run election, and this Monday the country is holding a formal celebration.
Chakwera said capacity at the national stadium would be halved to 20,000 and at least 100,000 face masks would be distributed in the capital Lilongwe.
“We’re in a worse situation today than we were three months ago. Coronavirus is spreading everywhere in Malawi and it’s spreading to kill,” he said in a televised address.
Covid-19 cases have more than doubled in the past two weeks to reach nearly 1,500, with 16 deaths.
Opposition politicians and activists had criticized Mutharika’s response to the pandemic, calling it inadequate and aimed at keeping him in power, Reuters reports.
As coronavirus cases spike, US public health officials are pleading with Americans to avoid large crowds and hold more muted Independence Day celebrations, the Associated Press reports.
But subdued is not president Donald Trump’s style, and he aimed to go big, promising a special evening in Washington that could bring tens of thousands to the National Mall.
Trump’s Salute for America celebration on Saturday evening was to include a speech from the White House South Lawn that he said would celebrate American heritage, as well as a military flyover over the city and an enormous fireworks display that could pack people downtown.
The president kicked off the holiday weekend by traveling to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota for a fireworks display Friday night near the mountain carvings of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt.
In his remarks, he accused protesters who have pushed for racial justice of engaging in a merciless campaign to wipe out “our history”.
In a presidential message on Saturday on the 244th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, Trump acknowledged that over the past months, the American spirit has undoubtedly been tested by many challenges.
His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, said in a statement that the US never lived up to its founding principle that all men are created equal, but that today “we have a chance to rip the roots of systemic racism out of this country.’’
His participation in big gatherings comes as many communities have decided to scrap fireworks, parades and other holiday traditions in attempts to prevent further spread of coronavirus, with confirmed cases climbing in 40 states.
Updated
Thai boxing matches resumed on Saturday after more than three months as the nation eases its coronavirus lockdown, but fans of the popular sport will have to make do with watching on television for now.
Leaders of the sport hailed the return to the ring after the shutdown, which left hundreds of boxers and referees without work, and said they hoped spectators would be allowed to attend matches again soon.
“I’m very happy and excited to get back to the ring [...] But I feel a bit strange. I was used to the sounds of crowds cheering, but there’s no audience,” Khathawut Tumthong, a 21-year-old boxer, told Reuters.
Thailand’s government has eased most curbs to try to revive an economy badly hit by the pandemic, with sports competitions among the latest activities to resume. No local transmissions of the virus have been reported for 40 days.
However, authorities have yet to issue rules on when and how audiences will be allowed at sports venues.
In March, a spike in virus cases was linked to a boxing match in Bangkok.
“Today is a good start for the boxing industry,” said Viboon Jampa-nguern, head of Thailand’s boxing committee.
“Boxers are in jeopardy, they don’t have alternative jobs. The same goes for those who work as boxing referees, they don’t have second jobs to support them,” he said.
Thailand’s tourism-driven economy could contract a record 8.1% this year, with the number of foreign tourists expected to tumble 80%, the central bank has forecast.
Record hospital admissions in Arizona
The US state of Arizona reported 2,695 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, bringing its total to 94,553. The number of hospital admissions for Covid-19 rose by 100 to a record high of 3,113 on Friday, the state health department said.
Ninety per cent of all adult intensive care beds were in use as of Friday, which is one percentage point lower than the day before.
Updated
Tunisia’s tourism sector has experienced a sharp slump as a result of the pandemic, the country’s central bank said on Saturday, reporting that revenues had fallen by 47% in the first half of the year compared to the same period in 2019.
Tourism is one of the most important economic sectors in Tunisia, but the government imposed strict lockdown restrictions.
It declared the pandemic defeated in mid-June, but few tourists have visited the country since, the DPA reports.
Tunisia has reported almost 1,200 cases and 50 deaths, significantly lower figures than for other north African countries. Recently there were officially fewer than 15 new infections every day.
Updated
Hello, I’m taking over for the next few hours. As always do feel free to flag anything relevant that we might have missed, you can message me on Twitter @JedySays or email me at jedidajah.otte.casual@theguardian.com.
Updated
The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Florida increased by a record 11,458 on Saturday, the state’s health department said.
This is the second time in three days that the figure has increased by more than 10,000.
The US has the highest number of both confirmed coronavirus cases and deaths in the world, at 2,795,437 and 129,476 respectively, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
Updated
Summary of key events
If you’re just joining us, here’s a summary of key developments in the coronavirus pandemic from around the world:
- Catalonia has put more than 200,000 people in the north-eastern Spanish region back into lockdown after more than 350 cases of coronavirus were detected in the area.
- The death toll in Russia has passed 10,000.
- Tokyo confirmed around 130 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, a third consecutive day with more than 100 new infections.
- Pubs and hair salons have reopened in England, along with cultural landmarks and some cinemas and galleries. You can read more on our UK live blog
- Three thousand people living in nine public housing towers in Melbourne have been placed under the harshest lockdown rules of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia so far, and have been banned from leaving their homes for at least five days.
- Iran will enforce the wearing of masks in enclosed public spaces and deny public services to those who refuse. It comes after a week-long campaign by state television to encourage the use of masks, which told viewers that “coronavirus is not a joke”.
Updated
Fans have gathered to mark the closure of much-lovedScala cinema in Bangkok, Thailand.
The cinema in the heart of the Thai capital has struggled for years to stay profitable as costs and competition have grown. The coronavirus pandemic appears to have dealt the final blow.
“I’m so sad I have no words. It is heartbreaking,” said Nanta Tansasha, whose family runs the venue, which was built by her father. “When we look toward the future, I don’t know if it will pick up ... so I decided to stop the business now.”
The Scala is the last cinema of its kind in Bangkok, where most others are housed in large shopping centres.
The final screenings include Italian films and Thai documentaries, and 3,000 tickets have been sold to fans who want to pay a last visit.
In its heyday, the Scala rolled out the red carpet for celebrities including Jean-Claude Van Damme at the Bangkok film festival in 2013.
Updated
Mexico has increased its border checks for the 4 July holiday weekend in an attempt to curb the spread of coronavirus.
Officials will install health checkpoints at various entry points along its northern border, as US and Mexican officials fear there could be a surge in crossings and subsequent spread of the virus.
Mexican consulates in the US urged people to refrain from crossing the border for recreation or tourism.
A ban on non-essential cross-border travel has been in place since March in an attempt by both governments to limit coronavirus infections, but traffic has still been busy.
Updated
Hi everyone, I’m Molly Blackall, taking over the blog for a little while.
If you spot something we should be reporting, you can drop me a message on Twitter. I won’t always be able to reply, but I will do my best to read everything. Thank you in advance, it’s always much appreciated!
Updated
Masks to be mandatory in Iran
Iran will enforce the wearing of masks in enclosed public spaces and deny public services to those who refuse, the government has announced among a serieds of new measures to counter Covid-19.
The country’s president, Hassan Rouhani, outlined the new measures in an address to the nation on Saturday. “Government employees should not serve people who do not wear masks and employees who do not wear them should be considered absentees and sent home,” he said.
Those infected have a “religious duty” to notify others, Rouhani said. “Keeping your infection a secret violates the rights of other people”.
The government has been trying to convince a reluctant public to accept masks, and a week-long campaign by state television has been telling viewers that “Coronavirus is not a joke”.
On Saturday a government website published photos of Rouhani, who is rarely seen wearing a mask, with a face covering.
The total number of coronavirus cases in Iran hasreached 237,878 and the number of deaths 11,408, the health ministry said.
Updated
China’s agriculture ministry has pushed back on a study into the G4 strain of swine flu, claiming it is not new and does not infect or sicken humans easily.
A study published earlier this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) said the G4 strain had the potential to become a pandemic virus.
China’s Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, however, said in a statement that the study has been interpreted by the media “in an exaggerated and nonfactual way”.
The ministry’s analysis concluded that the study’s sampling was too small to be representative, and that the article lacked adequate evidence to show the G4 virus has become the dominant strain among pigs.
The ministry said it drew its conclusions after holding a seminar on the G4 virus’s impact on the pig industry and public health. Participants included Chinese veterinarians and virologists and the leading authors of the PNAS study.
Updated
Afghanistan has announced the first death of a high profile official from Covid-19, as the government reported it had reached the peak of the virus outbreak.
Yosuf Ghazanfar, President Ashraf Ghani’s special envoy for economic development and poverty reduction, died from the virus on Friday night. Ghazanfar played a key role in Ghani’s 2019 presidential campaign, and a state commission headed by the president’s chief of staff is to be tasked with conducting his funeral and burial.
The health ministry said on Saturday that the country had reached the peak of its coronavirus outbreak, with 32,672 confirmed cases, including 348 new infections. The number of deaths has risen by seven to 826 in the last 24 hours.
Kabul, which has been the country’s worst affected area with 13,334 confirmed cases and 225 deaths, recorded 164 new cases and one death.
“According to our statistics, we are now at the peak of the pandemic as the daily infections have been around the same numbers in the last two weeks and suspected patients decreased so we hope daily numbers will drop soon,” said Abdulqadeer Qadeeri, the deputy health minister.
Testing capacity remains low in Afghanistan and experts say the actual number of infections is much higher. Afghanistan has tested 75,155 suspected patients since the outbreak began. Akmal Samsour, a spokesman for the health ministry said: “Only patients with severe symptoms go to medical centres, so the actual number may be something between 150,000 and 1.5 million.”
All six tests carried out in Helmand province in the last 24 hours came back positive, and the western province of Herat recorded 28 new cases from 51 tests. Herat has so far reported 4,958 confirmed cases and 130 deaths.
Herat borders Iran, which has been badly hit by the pandemic, and the first known case of the virus was reported in the province after thousands of Afghan migrants returned from Iran in February and March, fanning out across the country without being tested or quarantined.
The Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission asked the Taliban on Friday to allow human rights workers to investigate a recent mortar attack in Helmand. “We call on the Taliban to pave the way for an investigation by the workers of the human rights commission, because the area is under Taliban control,” said Zabiullah Farhang, head of the media department of the human rights commission.
At least 28 civilians were killed and 34 more wounded after four mortars hit a cattle market on Monday.
The UN mission in Afghanistan has said that according to its initial and impartial findings, “multiple credible sources assert that the army fired lethal mortars in response to Taliban fire, missing their intended target” and hitting the market in Sangin instead.
Updated
Update: Melbourne's 'hard lockdown'
Three thousand people living in nine public housing towers in Melbourne have been placed under the harshest lockdown rules of the coronavirus pandemic in Australia so far and banned from leaving their homes for at least five days.
Five hundred police officers have been dispatched to monitor the nine towers in Flemington and North Melbourne to ensure residents do not leave their small and often overcrowded units.
Calla Wahlquist and Margaret Simons report:
Updated
Catalonia places 200,000 back into lockdown
Catalonian officials have confined more than 200,000 people in the north-eastern Spanish region after more than 350 cases of coronavirus were detected in the area.
“We have decided to confine the perimeter of Segrià because of the notable rise in covid cases,” the region’s leader, Quim Torra, said on Saturday, describing it as a difficult decision.
The restriction on free movement is the first to be reintroduced in Spain since the country lifted many of its emergency measures on 21 June.
Movement in and out of the area, which is about a two-hour car journey west of Barcelona, will be restricted to most from midday Saturday. Officials have also recommended that residents limit their movements and social activities. Gatherings of more than 10 people have been prohibited.
The largest city in the area, Lleida, has been struggling with a surge in coronavirus cases in recent days. Health officials ordered a field hospital to be set up on Friday, after the number of infections nearly doubled from 167 to 325 in a week. They said they were monitoring nine active outbreaks, including at one a care home and several at fruit farms.
The restrictions come after Spain registered 17 deaths on Friday, the country’s highest 24-hour death toll in two weeks.
The virus has claimed more than 28,000 lives in the country, according to the health ministry, but the number of excess deaths hints at a toll among the highest in Europe.
Spain began gradually opening its borders last month, and on Saturday began allowing travellers from 12 countries outside the EU to enter, including Australia, Canada and Japan. Ashifa Kassam
• This entry was amended on 6 July 2020 because the restrictions in Catalonia are the first on free movement since 21 June, but not the first restrictions in the country since then as an earlier version said. Three counties in the Huesca region went back into phase 2 of reopening on 22 June.
Updated
“I’m taking each day as it comes, trying to stay healthy until I can get home.”
Hundreds of Venezuelan refugees who fled their country’s economic crisis in the hope of establishing a new life in Colombia have had their prospects shattered by Covid-19.
Joe Parkin Daniels reports from Bogotá on the people forced to turn their lives around in the most challenging of circumstances.
Updated
Hallo, this is Paul MacInnes, I’m taking over the blog for the next few hours.
Any questions or tips please email me.
Updated
Jair Bolsonaro sanctioned a law on Friday to make face masks obligatory in public in Brazil, but watered it down by vetoing their use in shops, churches and schools, the BBC reports.
The Brazilian president said people could have been fined for not wearing a mask at home.
Brazil has the world’s second-highest numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths. Almost 1.5 million people have been infected and 61,884 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Updated
Indonesia reported 1,447 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, the health ministry said, taking the nation’s tally to 62,142. It also announced 53 more deaths, taking the country’s toll to 3,089.
Updated
People in England are finally allowed to drink in a pub, have a meal in a restaurant or get a haircut for the first time in more than three months as as the country takes its biggest steps yet towards resumption of normal life.
Pubs were permitted to start serving from 6am, sparking worries about over-indulgence on what the media has called “super Saturday”.
Some hairdressers opened at the stroke of midnight.
In another relaxation of lockdown rules that were first imposed in late March two households can now meet indoors as long as social distancing is maintained, and overnight stays are allowed.
The Sun newspaper predicted that 15m pints (8.5m litres) of beer would be sunk in England on Saturday, though some pub-goers may be deterred by a forecast of unsettled weather.
Police said they were “absolutely prepared”, and hospitals have been told to prepare for a New Year’s Eve-style weekend.
The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, called on people to behave responsibly and respect social-distancing regulations, but he also stressed the importance of supporting businesses.
The success of these businesses, the livelihoods of those who rely on them, and ultimately the economic health of the whole country is dependent on every single one of us acting responsibly.
He said at a news conference on Friday: “We must not let them down.”
Saturday’s rule changes apply only to England. The UK’s devolved nations - Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland - have been setting their own timetables for easing lockdown restrictions.
Pub-goers will find the atmosphere rather different from the usual Saturday-night scrum.
Numbers will be limited, no one will be allowed to stand at the bar and there will be no live music. Patrons will also have to give their details to allow tracers to identify them if anyone later tests positive.
JD Wetherspoon, one of the biggest chains, said it had invested £11m ($13.7m) in safety measures. Most of its pubs in England opened at the usual time of 8am. It is not taking bookings, but said numbers would be controlled by staff at busy times.
Updated
I just spoke to Hana, a woman who lives in one of the nine public housing tower blocks placed into lockdown in Melbourne.
She learned of the lockdown when she returned home from the supermarket, just after 4pm, when she was greeted by dozens of police officers. The police presence was intimidating, she said.
I was just shocked. I thought, I don’t know, it seemed like there was some criminal activity or something, like a stabbing or something ...
I asked ‘what’s happened?’ and they said ‘oh, there’s an outbreak. You can’t leave your house. Just park your car, you can’t leave your house’.
There was another woman saying ‘I have got kids, I don’t have enough milk to last a couple of days’. No one has given us any warning ...
You had other suburbs where they had 48 hours warning before they were put in lockdown. How come we are any different? It just feels like we have been singled out.
She said it was hard not to feel that public housing blocks had been targeted when the towers are surrounded by other apartment buildings whose residents are free to go to the shops or for a daily walk.
You can’t even go out for a walk. You don’t have a backyard, you don’t have a balcony to get some fresh air. So you are a prisoner in your own home ... it’s inhumane.
Updated
Dozens of police officers are scattered around the entrances and throughout the grounds of a public housing estate on the corner of Sutton, Melrose and Alfred streets in North Melbourne.
Cars that entered the estate had their details checked and police were speaking to residents who were walking through the property.
The high rises will be in lockdown from midnight, meaning residents will not be allowed to leave for any reason. The government says they will be provided food, healthcare and other services.
One estate resident wearing a large mask and who was waiting in his car with a friend, sounded dismayed about the lockdown.
“We’re not happy about it,” he said before driving off.
Once residents enter one of the 20-storey buildings tonight, they won’t be allowed out for five days.
Updated
Four residents at Newmarch House, an aged care home in Sydney, Australia, where 17 people died in Australia’s deadliest on-soil outbreak of the virus, have been tested for Covid-19.
The outbreak is subject to a major coronial investigation and a class action.
In a statement, NSW Health said the four residents at the aged care home were tested on Saturday after “displaying symptoms of respiratory illness”. One of the tests returned a negative result, the other three are pending.
The decision to lock down nine public housing towers in Melbourne has been heavily criticised by activists, lawyers and public health advocates.
Paul Kidd, an HIV+ activist, described the decision to lock down the towers as “a powder keg, a disaster”.
Kidd says many living in the tower are recovering drug addicts on the methadone program, and need to attend a health service every day to receive their injection.
3000 public housing tenants … you’re talking about people who have high rates of mental illness, family violence, drug use, medical needs, locked into their homes, surrounded by armed cops … that’s a powderkeg. This is a disaster.
— Paul Kidd #BLM (@paulkidd) July 4, 2020
Lock the whole damn state down if needed, don’t target the most vulnerable people.
— Paul Kidd #BLM (@paulkidd) July 4, 2020
The decision to put police in charge of the lockdown has been widely criticised.
Meanwhile photos from journalist Margaret Simons show armed police officers, wearing gloves and facemasks, guarding the door to one of the largest towers at 120 Racecourse Road, Flemington.
@lenoretaylor @callapilla pic.twitter.com/tabKHvMfju
— MargaretSimons (@MargaretSimons) July 4, 2020
Updated
Russia's death toll passes 10,000, cases near 675,000
Russia has reported 6,632 new cases of the coronavirus, raising the nationwide tally of infections to 674,515.
The authorities said that 168 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 10,027.
Updated
Good morning from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, joining the blog for the next hour. As I’m sure you’ve heard, pubs are reopening here in England today after three months of lockdown and we’re all on edge in anticipation of how busy they may or may not be throughout the day.
Even with “Covid-secure” measures in place, there is some trepidation about how safe it is to head to your local pub when people might get carried away, but there’s also a desire to support businesses that have faced long periods of closure. We will be bringing you more on this throughout the morning.
This is from our Rob Davies who was at the Moon Under Water pub from 7:45am. It’s now 8:20am and he appears to still be the only one there.
Here it is...what I believe may be the first pint served in London since March. pic.twitter.com/m2PT0TXV1m
— Rob Davies (@ByRobDavies) July 4, 2020
Updated
Journalist Margaret Simons lives in Flemington in Melbourne, and says she is concerned about her neighbours living in public housing towers.
The police have already arrived.
Cops in place #flemington @lenoretaylor @callapilla pic.twitter.com/yq0swyY79T
— MargaretSimons (@MargaretSimons) July 4, 2020
Tokyo confirmed about 130 new cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, a third consecutive day with more than 100 new cases, public broadcaster NHK reported.
From Reuters:
Cases in Tokyo have risen to a two-month high, driven by the spread of the virus in the capital’s night spots.
Tokyo on Friday reported 124 new cases, up from 107 the day before, partly due to increased testing among night life workers in the Shinjuku and Ikebukuro districts.
BREAKING: Police are arriving at the housing commission estates in #Flemington - this is one of nine estates to be immediately locked down, after revelations 23 people have tested positive for COVID-19 from 12 separate families. @7NewsMelbourne pic.twitter.com/BF04JN4rZ9
— Kristy Mayr (@KristyMayr7) July 4, 2020
Kelly says he has called an emergency meeting of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee for 6pm.
We will have only one topic on that agenda and that will be to discuss the Victorian situation.
Updated
Still in Australia, the acting chief medical officer, Professor Paul Kelly, is giving the national update.
Australia has now had 8,362 cases and has conducted more than 2.6m coronavirus tests, including more than 50,000 in the past 24 hours.
That’s 113 new cases in the past 24 hours. That’s 108 in Victoria and five in NSW.
Kelly says they also added 189 historic cases added to the NSW total. They are mostly Ruby Princess cruise ship crew members, who never actually set foot on Australian soil but were ill in Australian waters.
They have been added to the Australian total in order to ensure an accurate report to the World Health Organisation.
Updated
Guardian Australia’s data editor, Nick Evershed, noted that the daily total number of cases for Victoria on 28 March was revised down from 111 to 106 due to duplicate tests.
It is not uncommon for a daily total to be revised down due to duplicates. That could happen to today’s figure of 108. But it means that today is possibly the highest daily coronavirus total in Victoria since the start of the pandemic.
Updated
Victoria’s deputy chief health officer, Dr Annaliese van Diemen, said that those 23 cases had hundreds of close contacts.
She acknowledged that living in very close quarters — some of these small units house families of eight or nine people — would increase the risk of transmission. But she said those families were already living in very close quarters and already had that risk of transmission, and if the units were not locked down it risked an “explosion” of new cases.
Also, in a figure that looks very small on global measures but worryingly high in Australia, the number of cases attributed to untraced community transmission in Victoria jumped by 26 overnight.
The trigger for the public housing towers being locked down is the report of 23 new coronavirus cases, across 12 households, in public housing estates in Flemington and North Melbourne.
These are the general kind of towers we are talking about.
Andrews warns that Victoria will not return to life as normal until a vaccine is developed and administered to the whole community. So: we don’t know when.
He says returning to business as usual before a vaccine is developed “will only see us finish up with wave after wave after wave of unacceptably high case numbers and on and off restrictions for the foreseeable future. We don’t want to get to that.”
He urges anyone who is a close contact of a known coronavirus case, and anyone who has symptoms, or has tested positive to the virus, to remain at home.
There will be shifts of 500 police officers assigned to ensuring the nine towers remain under a hard lockdown.
That’s 500 police at any one time.
Andrews has been using the term a “hard lockdown,” but not really defined it.
It means a lockdown where you really cannot go outside for any reason.
This order is the first time Australia has implemented that kind of lockdown, anywhere and at any stage in the pandemic. The lockdowns Australia has experienced to date have ordered that people stay at home unless they are leaving the house for exercise, work or study that cannot be done remotely; care or caregiving; or essential grocery shopping. In Victoria, that’s officially called stage three stay-at-home orders.
In Melbourne, as of right now, we have 10 postcodes under those stage-three stay-at-home orders, two more postcodes that will be under those orders from midnight tonight, and nine public housing towers that are under the “hard lockdown” and cannot go out at all for any reason.
Updated
Andrews is asked if he should take responsibility for this outbreak, given the link to the mismanagement of hotel quarantine.
He says he won’t comment on that — he’s called an inquiry and is now “exclusively focused on, is dealing with this challenge”.
He repeats that if this strategy of localised lockdowns does not work, the alternative is to lock down the entire state again.
As well as pubs, hair salons have reopened in England. Many of them let customers back in on the stroke of midnight for those desperate to have some personal grooming after months of lockdown.
Here’s a full report:
Victoria police are in charge of managing the lockdown, informing residents and ensuring they return home as soon as possible. Andrews says they are the most appropriate people to be doing that work, and says they played a similar role in the bushfires.
Although that supposes that those living in inner-city public housing towers have the same relationship to police as do the mainly white coastal communities affected by bushfire this summer. I’d suggest they don’t.
Updated
Daniel Andrews is explaining how the hard lockdown for those nine towers will work. He says it will be similar to how an outbreak in an aged care home is managed.
If you’re in one of those towers the minister has just read out, you will not be allowed to leave your unit, your dwelling within that tower, for any reason.
That is not an easy decision to make but it is the appropriate decision to make. If I can draw an analogy, it is not dissimilar to the way aged care facilities are treated if there is a positive case, let alone an outbreak, in an aged care facility.
Such is the vulnerability and the susceptibility of many in that cohort, many residents in those towers, that to do anything else, as difficult, as unique as these steps are — unprecedented — would be to not follow the public health advice, and pose an unacceptable risk to the health and wellbeing of those who live in the towers and, by extension, the health and wellbeing of every single Victorian.
Wynne said earlier:
People living in these public housing towers are some of the most vulnerable people in our community. Many of them are subject to co-morbidities and we want to ensure that we wrap around them all of the services that they are going to need, not just over the next five days or indeed potentially the next 14 days, but going forward that we provide them with all of the support they need to maintain their tenancy but obviously to maintain their wellness also.
Updated
Victorian housing minister Richard Wynne is listing the nine towers subject to the hard lockdown.
In Flemington, they are:
12 Holland Court
120 Racecourse Road
126 Racecourse Road
130 Racecourse Road
Says Wynne:
These are all high-rise towers. They are all ... characterised by having common lifts, common entrances and common walkways within the flats themselves, so on the expert advice of the Chief Health Officer we believe that they present an acute challenge going forward.
In North Melbourne:
12 Sutton Street
33 Alfred Street
76 Canning Street
159 Melrose street
9 Pampus Street
Says Wynne:
All of those are mid rise or high rise towers. We think this is the appropriate action for the government to take in the context of ensuring that we address the obvious infections that are in both of those facilities at the moment.
Updated
Those postcodes again are 3031 and 3051.
They cover the suburbs of Flemington, Kensington, Hotham Hill and North Melbourne.
Andrews says the public health order regarding the hard lockdown of the towers is made for 14 days, because that’s the timeframe listed in the legislation.
But he says the hard lockdown will be for at least five days, because that’s how long it will take to test all 3,000 residents in those nine towers and get the results back from the lab.
Andrews says the new numbers show “evidence of sufficient cases to see the public health team advise me only a short while ago to take these steps”.
They’re not taken lightly. We at no point underestimate how challenging this will be for families and businesses, particularly families, many of whom are vulnerable in those public housing towers, but for their safety and safety of all Victorians this is the right approach. These are the steps that need to be taken.
He said all those living within the now 12 restricted postcodes “have our gratitude”.
Updated
Andrews says:
Can I just say to all Victorians these numbers are a very real concern to all of us. That’s why it is so, so important that if you have symptoms you come forward and get tested. If you are unwell, the only reason to leave your home is to get tested. If someone knocks on your door and asks for you to take a test, please be sure and answer yes.
It is a massive contribution that you can make to the health and welfare of your family and every family.
Andrews puts out a plea to media and to the general public to be “as sensitive as we possibly can as to the privacy and the fragility that many of those people will be experiencing right now”.
This is a very significant step, not one we’ve had to take before but it is for the protection of those residents and the broader community that we take this very difficult step.
He says the police presence will be “unprecedented”.
Andrews says they are working through the logistics of providing food to the 3,000 residents of those towers. He says he does not underestimate “how hard, how challenging” that will be.
Public housing units are not large. Five days locked inside will be very tough.
Andrews locks down two new postcodes, with a 'hard lockdown' of nine public housing towers
Andrews says they have “unacceptably high” case numbers recorded in two new postcodes, they are 3031 and 3051. That lockdown will begin at 11.59pm tonight.
That brings the number of postcodes locked down to 12.
Andrews also said:
Nine public housing towers in those postcodes will be the subject of a complete lockdown, immediately.
Andrews says that because there are recorded cases in there, and there are shared facilities and it’s high density housing, the public health advice is that they be subject to a “hard lockdown” immediately. That lockdown is effective for five days.
That covers 1,345 units and 3,000 residents.
Updated
Victoria records 108 new coronavirus cases, the second highest day ever
Victoria has recorded 108 new coronavirus cases, the highest single day total since 28 March.
On 28 March, Victoria recorded 111 new cases in a single day. That was also the Australian national incidence peak for the whole pandemic, so going back to similar figures is, to put it mildly, extremely not good.
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews is speaking now.
I am handing over the blog to my esteemed colleague Calla Wahlquist now.
We will have an update on the numbers from Victoria at 4pm, and then a national press conference at 4.30pm.
We still have yet to have a reported case of an unknown close contact identified through Australia’s Covidsafe contact tracing app, despite about 110 downloads from people who tested positive.
Updated
Small turnout in Brisbane for Black Lives Matter protest
At a Black Lives Matter protest in Brisbane today, organisers were frustrated that fewer than 1,000 people turned up, after 30,000 turned up for a similar rally last month.
Via AAP:
‘I cannot explain the disappointment,’ Gomeroi Kooma woman Ruby Wharton told the small crowd gathered at King George Square on Saturday.
‘It was OK for people to come out here and want to be a part of it when they were chasing a hundred likes on Instagram. That is shameful and tokenism.’
Organiser Bogaine Spearim said the rally was intended to be a continuation of the global protests that kicked off in the wake of George Floyd’s death in May.
‘Deaths are continuing to happen in Australia – Dave Dungay Jr said “I can’t breathe” before dying in custody,’ he said.
‘We will continue to hit the streets and disrupt until there is justice.’
Despite the small turnout, the protesters were vocal, shouting: ‘Always was, always will be Aboriginal land’ and ‘No justice, no peace, no racist police’.
Updated
The pubs in England are now open. We will update when we hear how it is going, or if we get some photos.
New South Wales is capping the number of international arrives coming in to Sydney every day at 450, or 50 people per flight, from midnight tonight.
NSW police minister David Elliott said it was to ensure the hotel quarantining system put in place is not stretched to breaking point.
Currently in Australia, people returning from overseas need to go into hotel isolation for two weeks. In NSW, the police and defence force are overseeing the quarantine system, but Victoria until recently had been using private security guard companies, which have been blamed for the recent spike in cases.
Hazzard said given Victoria’s problems, and because Queensland had started to charge returning travellers for hotel quarantine, NSW was seeing an influx of people picking Sydney as their port of entry.
Here’s more on US president Donald Trump’s Mount Rushmore speech.
Western Australia has reported no new cases of coronavirus overnight.
The WA health department has increased the state’s total case count by one to 612 after a historical case was identified through serology testing.
The historic case relates to a woman in her 60s who is a returned overseas traveller and was a former passenger on the cruise ship Zaandam.
There are three active cases of coronavirus in WA.
Reports Donald Trump Jr's girlfriend tested positive for Covid-19
There are reports saying sources have said senior Trump campaign official Kimberly Guilfoyle, who is also the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr, has tested positive for coronavirus.
Donald Trump Jr reportedly tested negative.
It comes as the US president, Donald Trump, railed against “angry mobs” that tried to tear down statues of Confederate leaders and other historical figures, warning thousands of supporters at Mount Rushmore that protestors were trying to erase US history.
Via Reuters:
Speaking underneath a famed landmark that depicts four US presidents, Trump warned that the demonstrations over racial inequality in American society threatened the foundations of the US political system.
‘Make no mistake, this leftwing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American revolution,’ Trump said.
‘Our children are taught in school to hate their own country,’ he added.
The event drew an estimated 7,500 people, packed tightly into an amphitheatre beneath the famed landmark that depicts the images of US presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. Masks were offered to attendees but many did not wear them.
Updated
The ABC is reporting 120 passengers travelling back to Australia as part of repatriation efforts by the federal government have arrived in Adelaide where they will be quarantined in hotels for two weeks and tested for Covid-19.
After failures over hotel quarantine in Victoria lead to the second spike, each state is taking no chances now to ensure the virus is contained.
As restrictions in the UK are lifted, people are getting married again.
Updated
Tourism operators in Australia are working to figure out how to get their industry started again after the pandemic forced closures.
Via AAP:
The Tourism Restart Taskforce – formed through the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry – has launched a restart plan to reignite tourism across the country.
The chamber’s chair for tourism, John Hart, said the group was formed to provide expert advice to the federal government.
‘What we need right now is a clear timetable for the Morrison government in order to restore hope to the tourism sector,’ Hart said in a statement on Saturday.
‘Tourism businesses need lead time to prepare - they can’t open their doors in 24 hours and start trading.’
Among the taskforce’s recommendations is a timetable beyond national cabinet’s Step 3 of easing restrictions for tourism, hospitality and events, and making clear the conditions that will enable each step to be taken.
Once set, it says there should be no going back on easing restrictions unless serious and transparent health benchmarks are compromised.
It wants all of Australia’s state and territory borders open and the establishment of a trans-Tasman bubble this month.
Other recommendations call for the jobkeeper wage subsidy or a similar support scheme for tourism and hospitality businesses, which are still impacted by government restrictions or have been completely closed down by the crisis.
‘This plan provides a runway back to operations for the industries that comprise Australia’s largest services export and the creator of one in 13 jobs in the Australian economy,’ chair of the Tourism Restart Taskforce, Jeremy Johnson, said.
Updated
63 new cases of virus in South Korea
South Korea has reported 63 new cases of coronavirus, bringing the country’s total to 13,030 infections and 283 deaths.
28 of the new cases are from the Seoul metropolitan area, which accounts for around half of South Korea’s 51m population.
27 of the cases were linked to international arrivals, who have been in enforced quarantine.
China has also reported three new confirmed cases, bringing the Chinese mainland’s total confirmed cases to 83,545 with 4,634 confirmed deaths.
Updated
As pubs re-open in England on Saturday for the first time since March, some are concerned it could be total chaos. Via AFP:
Takings could be up nearly 75 percent to £210 million ($262 million, 233 million euros), according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research, a thinktank.
It predicted 6.5 million customers - 1.5 million more than a usual weekend.
The British Beer and Pub Association said it hoped 80% of England’s 28,000 pubs could open but it could take 12 months or more for trade to return to normal.
“If 10% of them are profitable, that will be a surprise to us,” said chief executive Emma McClarkin, warning up to 18,000 were at risk of closure by the year end.
Some pubs are adopting a wait-and-see approach, as several surveys indicated many people were hesitant about mixing in larger groups.
In Newcastle, north-east England, where pubs are normally packed at weekends, just one in three city centre pubs, bars and restaurants will be open, the local council said.
“We are genuinely concerned that this could be a day of total chaos for the pub trade,” the owners of the popular Tyne Bar on the city’s Quayside said in a tweet.
“We’ve decided it’s not worth the risk.”
Government guidelines insist on “minimum contact” between staff and customers, with table service only. Drinkers will also have to give contact details in case of any outbreak.
Updated
Thanks Calla for covering for me on my break. Josh Taylor back with you now until 4pm.
We are expecting an update from Victoria on its numbers in the next couple of hours.
Meanwhile, Australian Labor party leader Anthony Albanese has questioned how Covid-19 tests could be made mandatory after it was revealed around 10,000 people in Victoria have refused to be tested.
“I am not sure about the legal issues of how that could be done.
“The idea that someone would resist testing ... people should participate in it,” Albanese said.
“Not just for their own health but the health of their family and friends and others. This is something where we all have a responsibility.”
Updated
This is very exciting news for West Australians and fans of competitive woodchopping.
The Sydney Royal Easter show, Adelaide Royal Show, Melbourne Royal Show, and the Ekka (the Brisbane royal show) have all been cancelled this year due to the coronavirus.
This morning I’m very proud to be able to tell every Western Australian family that the Royal Show will be going ahead this year.
— Mark McGowan (@MarkMcGowanMP) July 4, 2020
Not only that, the State Government will support the show by providing funding for a 25% discount on ticket prices for family and adult entry. pic.twitter.com/wXbQbIvOpF
While we’re in the UK, the law allowing pubs to reopen comes into effect at 6am. That’s in just under three hours, but the first pubs to open are not expected to do so until the more civilised (and still far too early) time of 8am.
This sounds like a fantastically bad time to be in a pub. We’ll let you know how it goes.
Hairdressers in England are able to reopen their doors today, provided they follow infection control protocols. If you have a long-awaited trim lined up, please send us your before photos.
United States records 53,000 new coronavirus cases on Friday
From Reuters:
The United States reported more than 53,000 new Covid-19 cases on Friday and several states set new records, according to a Reuters tally.
A surge in coronavirus cases has put President Donald Trump’s handling of the crisis under the microscope and jeopardised reopening the economy, with some states closing high-risk businesses.
Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee all set single-day records for new cases on Friday, according to Reuters.
The daily US tally stood at 53,483 late Friday, below the previous day’s record of 55,405.
Updated
Victorian health authorities have set up a number of new walk-in and drive-through testing sites in hotspot suburbs in Melbourne’s north.
We have not yet heard when Victorian authorities will be holding a press conference today. Victoria recorded more than 400 new cases in the past week, and premier Daniel Andrews has warned that other suburbs, beyond the 36 already under stay at home orders, may need to be locked down if case numbers continue to rise.
Given that warning, people are a bit anxious about the prospect of a late afternoon press conference.
New #COVID19 drive-thru testing site testing today:
— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) July 4, 2020
Westfield Airport West, 29/35 Louis St, Airport West.
Open: 9am to 5pm, 7 days a week.@BenCarrollMP @mooneevalleycc #springst
New #COVID19 walk-in testing site testing today:
— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) July 4, 2020
Meadow Heights Community Centre, 15/29 Buchan St, Meadow Heights
Opening 12pm-4pm Saturday. From Sunday: 10am to 4pm, 7 days a week.@Frank_McGuire @HumeCityCouncil #springst
New #COVID19 walk-in testing site testing today:
— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) July 4, 2020
Glenroy Senior Citizens Centre, 5D Cromwell St, Glenroy
*replacing previous site at Glenroy Library
Open 12pm to 4pm Saturday. From Sunday: 10am to 4pm, 7 days a week.@morelandcouncil #springst
New #COVID19 walk-in testing site testing today:
— Jenny Mikakos MP #StayHomeSaveLives (@JennyMikakos) July 4, 2020
Hansen Reserve, Roberts St, West Footscray
Open: 10am to 4pm, 7 days a week.@Katie_Footscray @IngridStitt @KaushaliyaMP @CesarMelhem @MaribyrnongCC #springst
Hello, it’s Calla Wahlquist, covering the blog for a little while for Josh Taylor.
The Eden-Monaro byelection is happening today. It’s a line-ball as to whether Scott Morrison’s leadership during the coronavirus pandemic will cancel out his lack of leadership during the bushfire crisis, particularly demonstrated in the Eden-Monaro town of Cobargo.
That’s a long-winded explanation of why this is currently happening at an Eden-Monaro polling both:
Also this pic.twitter.com/CisBEDeyKo
— Kieran Gilbert (@Kieran_Gilbert) July 4, 2020
Victoria Police has said it is standing by communities who might be being unfairly targeted and blamed for the spike in coronavirus cases in the state.
We know this may cause many people to feel that they are being unfairly targeted.
We want the community to know that we stand by you.
If you have been racially abused or are the victims of a prejudice-motivated crime then please speak to police.
Racism and discrimination have no place in our society.
Every Victorian has the right to feel safe and secure in the community.
Incidents of racism, discrimination or vilification based on religion, culture or ethnicity not only have direct impact on individual victims, but also the whole community.
We take all reports of this nature seriously, and we are here to support you.
Anyone who experiences or witnesses these crimes is encouraged to report them to their local police station.
Sky News host Peta Credlin apologised last week after she incorrectly blamed the South Sudanese community for a cluster of coronavirus in Melbourne.
New South Wales reports six new cases
New South Wales has reported six new cases of coronavirus on Saturday.
Five are returned travellers in hotel quarantine, and one is an 18-year-old male student from Green Point Christian College on the Central Coast.
This is a past infection and not an active case.
New South Wales also confirmed the 189 historic cruise ship cases being added to its total.
“The cases were reported by NSW Health at the time of diagnosis, but were not included in NSW totals as they were on board the ship and not in NSW when diagnosed. The cases were not associated with any further transmissions in Australia as they were managed on board the cruise ship.”
Mexico’s health ministry has reported 6,740 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 654 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 245,251 cases and 29,843 deaths.
It is just one less than the record total reported on Thursday.
There were 1,300 vehicle checks at the Queensland border yesterday, and eight cars were turned back. No one has made a false declaration on their pass seeking entry into the state, police say.
Queensland’s police minister, Mark Ryan, is defending the government’s decision to prevent people from Victoria entering the state.
There is just one active case of coronavirus in the state and it wants to prevent any setback.
“We can’t afford to drop the ball now. We can’t afford complacency,” he says.
On reports that people were dancing in nightclubs – clubs can open but people must be seated – Ryan says people need to follow the rules.
“Look I don’t want to be a fuddy-duddy about this, but there are rules in place for a reason,” he says. “There are rules in place to keep Queenslanders safe.”
Updated
WHO alerted itself to coronavirus, not China
AFP is reporting that the World Health Organisation has changed its account of the initial stages of the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic to say that its office in China first alerted the organisation to the pneumonia cases in Wuhan, not China:
On 9 April WHO published an initial timeline of its communications, partly in response to criticism of its early response to the outbreak that has now claimed more than 521,000 lives worldwide.
In that chronology, WHO had said only that the Wuhan municipal health commission in the province of Hubei had on 31 December reported cases of pneumonia. The UN health agency did not however specify who had notified it.
WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference on 20 April the first report had come from China, without specifying whether the report had been sent by Chinese authorities or another source.
But a new chronology, published this week by the Geneva-based institution, offers a more detailed version of events.
It indicates that it was the WHO office in China that on 31 December notified its regional point of contact of a case of ‘viral pneumonia’ after having found a declaration for the media on a Wuhan health commission website on the issue.
The same day, WHO’s epidemic information service picked up another news report transmitted by the international epidemiological surveillance network ProMed – based in the United States – about the same group of cases of pneumonia from unknown causes in Wuhan.
After which WHO asked the Chinese authorities on two occasions, on 1 January and 2 January, for information about these cases, which they provided on 3 January.
WHO emergencies director Michael Ryan told a press conference on Friday that countries have 24-48 hours to officially verify an event and provide the agency with additional information about the nature or cause of an event.
Ryan added that the Chinese authorities immediately contacted WHO as soon as the agency asked to verify the report.
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NSW adds 189 historic cases to total
New South Wales has quietly added 189 confirmed cases of coronavirus to its total overnight, bringing the total to 3,400 cases.
The health department said 189 historic cases reported in crew members on board a ship were classified as Australian cases and included in NSW totals.
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Eleven million cases of coronavirus worldwide
There are now 11m confirmed cases of coronavirus worldwide, according to the data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
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Several US states report record numbers of cases
Reuters is reporting that Alabama and several other US states reported record increases in coronavirus cases on Friday ahead of the long weekend:
North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alaska all saw new daily highs in confirmed cases of Covid-19 ... while Florida’s caseload came in just below the prior day’s record high.
The recent surge in cases, most pronounced in southern and western states, has alarmed public health officials, who urged caution ahead of a 4 July holiday weekend that in normal times would feature big gatherings of families and friends.
North Carolina reported 951 hospitalisations and 2,099 cases, marking a new record for the first time in three weeks.
‘Highest new case count, highest hospitalisations, highest per cent positive since end of April. Please be cautious this holiday weekend,’ Betsy Tilson, North Carolina state health director, wrote on Twitter about Friday’s figures.
Despite the jump in infections, the daily death rate in the United States has remained relatively flat, a reflection of the growing proportion of positive tests among younger people who tend to be healthier and less prone to severe outcomes.
However, the US surgeon general, Jerome Adams, warned that the impact on fatalities from the recent surge which started in mid June had yet to be seen. ‘Deaths lag at least two weeks and can lag even more,’ he told Fox & Friends on Friday.
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Nine News is reporting a train passenger in Sydney, New South Wales, is being transported to hotel quarantine after showing symptoms of Covid-19.
#BREAKING: A train passenger in Sydney has been loaded into an ambulance and is being taken to hotel quarantine after showing symptoms of COVID-19. #9News pic.twitter.com/AWYyWTLo7g
— Nine News Sydney (@9NewsSyd) July 3, 2020
Good morning
Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic.
I’m Josh Taylor and I will be with you on the blog for the next few hours. You can reach me on Twitter @joshgnosis or email me josh.taylor@theguardian.com.
Here’s the latest rundown of global coronavirus news:
- Several US states recorded new daily highs in confirmed coronavirus cases. Alabama, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Alaska all recorded record numbers of new cases, as the US reported 55,274 new cases nationally on Thursday.
- Brazil reported 1,290 more deaths and registered 42,223 new cases in the past 24 hours. It remains the second-worst in terms of case numbers in the world, just behind the United States.
- The US will be on a “red list” of high-risk countries that people in England are advised not to visit for non-essential reasons because of its continued high level of coronavirus cases, the UK government said. Travel restrictions will be relaxed in England for more than 50 countries including nearly all EU countries, British territories, Australia and New Zealand.
- The UK prime minister, Boris Johnson, stood by his decision to allow pubs, bars and restaurants to reopen in England on a Saturday despite concerns from the public that it could put extra strain on the police and the health service. In a radio interview, he suggested that the day of the week for reopening would not make a difference.
- Cases of coronavirus are surging in South Africa, a month after the country lifted most of the restrictions brought in with one of the world’s strictest lockdowns. On Thursday authorities reported the country’s biggest single-day jump in coronavirus cases, adding 8,728 confirmed infections and taking the total count to 168,061.
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The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in Iraq increased sevenfold in June, the International Rescue Committee said as it urged a redoubling of efforts to contain the spread of the disease in the country. By 1 July there had been 53,708 infections detected in the country, up from 6,868 on 1 June. The ministry of health said that hospitals are almost at full capacity.
- A fresh state of emergency was declared in Belgrade, with a number of restrictions restored after a new increase in coronavirus infections in the Serbian capital. Local authorities had already declared emergencies in several other municipalities where a rise in coronavirus cases had threatened to disrupt the functioning of the health system.
- The Philippines reported its highest single-day increase in coronavirus infections, with 1,531 new cases detected in the past 24 hours, bringing the national total to 40,336. The country’s Covid-19 death toll has reached 1,280, after 12 more deaths from the disease.
- The European commission gave conditional approval for the use of antiviral remdesivir in severe Covid-19 patients following an accelerated review process, making it the region’s first therapy to be authorised to treat the virus. The move comes just a week after the European Medicines Agency gave its go-ahead for the drug, produced by Gilead Sciences.
- Life in Russia is unlikely to return to normal until next February at the earliest, the country’s health minister said. Many restrictions have already been eased, but with thousands of new cases still being reported every day, and a death toll approaching 10,000, some measures remain in force, including a ban on international flights, extended on Thursday until August.
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