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Argentina posts daily record of cases
Argentina has posted a daily record of 3,604 confirmed cases of Covid-19.
The sharp rise, the first time daily cases have surpassed 3,000, took the total number to 87,030, fivefold the number at the start of June, though still well below case loads in Brazil, Chile and Peru.
Argentina’s center-left government imposed a strict lockdown in mid-March, which has been loosened in most of the country but was extended and reinforced last month in and around Buenos Aires due to a spike in cases.
The country’s death toll from the pandemic stands at 1,694.
Updated
Nigeria has passed 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases, according to the country’s Centre for Disease Control.
Global coronavirus cases approach 12 million mark
Coronavirus cases worldwide are nearing 12 million, according to a tracker by Johns Hopkins University.
The number of cases currently stands at 11.92 million, according to the US-based university.
The US has recorded more than 3 million cases, the highest of any country, followed by Brazil with around 1.67 million cases.
Updated
Unions at Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, said nearly 3,000 workers had been infected with coronavirus, prompting renewed calls for more safety measures at the company’s operations.
Patricio Elgueta, president of the Federation of Copper Workers (FTC), an umbrella group for the company’s unions, told Reuters it had tallied 2,843 coronavirus infections among workers as of July 5.
“The company does not give the database to the workers, so we have to rebuild it every day in order to see how (infections) are progressing,” he said.
In Texas, the death rate has risen by 98 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 2,813 which is the biggest daily increase, according to the state health department.
In West Virginia, cases have increased by 202 to 3,707, the biggest increase since the pandemic started, a tally by Reuters found.
A dispatch from The Guardian’s west coast office, on California’s regathering storm and Governor Gavin Newsom’s moves to tackle it:
California reported more than 9,000 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, a new high in daily cases. New cases actually topped 11,000, said Newsom, though he attributed about 2,000 to a reporting backlog.
The state is seeing red flags across the board. In the past two weeks, hospitalizations have risen to 6,100, a 44% increase. Admissions to intensive care have climbed by 34%.
While testing is up, so is the percentage of positive cases, which has risen above 7%. In the early weeks of the pandemic, the state’s positivity rate topped 40%, largely due to scarcity of tests that meant only those showing clear signs of infection could access testing.
This week, the state added three counties to a “watch list” of areas where public health experts closely monitor case spikes and hospital capacity.
Carmela Coyle, president and chief executive of the California Hospital Association, said doctors have learned a lot in the past four months.
“We’re preparing to surge, but we’re going to surge differently this time. We have different tools, and we’ve learned a lot about how to care for Covid-positive patients. We’re putting less patients on ventilators; we have remdesivir.”,
That is a therapeutic drug that has been found to shorten the time to recovery in adults hospitalized with Covid-19.
Public health officials continue to field questions on who is getting sick. While Newsom has previously pointed to the “young and invincible” who fail to take safety precautions because they feel immune, on Wednesday he recognized the toll the pandemic has taken on “essential workers”.
“There’s a little bit of mythology about reopening the economy,” he said, adding that while some of the state previously shut down, 60% of its economy kept moving. Those who kept working outside the home included farmworkers, grocery store employees and others doing jobs that are “overrepresented in the black and brown community”, Newsom said.
According to state public health data, Latinos represent an outsized portion of cases.
Brazil death toll creeps towards 68,000
In Brazil, the death toll has risen to 67,964, from 66,741 yesterday, according to the country’s health ministry.
Brazil has registered 1,713,160 total confirmed cases, up from 1,668,589 yesterday.
Trump’s campaign rally contributed to surge of cases in Tulsa, doctor claims
President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa that drew thousands of people in June, along with large protests that accompanied it, “likely contributed” to a dramatic surge in coronavirus cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said.
Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday.
Although the health department’s policy is to not publicly identify individual settings where people may have contracted the virus, Dart said those large gatherings “more than likely” contributed to the spike.
“In the past few days, we’ve seen almost 500 new cases, and we had several large events just over two weeks ago, so I guess we just connect the dots,” Dart said.
Updated
The front page of tomorrow’s UK edition of The Guardian focuses on chancellor Rishi Sunak’s package of unprecedented level of employment support to assist in the economic recovery from coronavirus.
Guardian front page, Thursday 9 July 2020: Mass unemployment fears despite Sunak’s ‘plan for jobs’ pic.twitter.com/dOItM35ABn
— The Guardian (@guardian) July 8, 2020
Mike Pence, the US vice-president, followed up demands made by Donald Trump and declared: “It’s time for us to get our kids back to school,” even as the coronavirus surged beyond the bleak milestone of 3 million cases across the US.
Pence, who heads the White House coronavirus taskforce, said the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) would issue new guidance next week for the reopening of schools in the autumn, prompting criticism that it is yielding to pressure from the president.
Los Angeles County has seen coronavirus cases rise by 2,496 on Wednesday, bringing the total to 123,004.
Its positivity rate on a 7-day rolling average has risen to 10.4%, the highest since late April, according to the county health department.
In response to the US coronavirus crisis, its economic fallout and social unrest in response to police brutality against black Americans, Joe Biden has insisted that the “blinders” have come off and more Americans are open to big ideas.
“For the millions of Americans facing hardship due to President Trump’s failed coronavirus response, this election offers the chance to usher in a stronger, fairer economy that works for our working families,” Biden said in a statement.
“I commend the taskforces for their service and helping build a bold, transformative platform for our party and for our country.
“And I am deeply grateful to Senator Sanders for working together to unite our party and deliver real, lasting change for generations to come.”
A new report studying the impact of the coronavirus on workers at meat processing plants in the US has found that 87% of people infected were from ethnic minorities and that at least 86 workers have died.
The report by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention examined more than 16,000 Covid-19 cases at 239 plants in 21 states.
It offers perspective on how the virus devastated U.S. pork, beef and poultry processing plants, but the figures likely understate the problem as Iowa officials declined to participate in the study.
The CDC report found 87% of coronavirus cases occurred among racial and ethnic minorities even though they made up 61% of the overall worker population.
The data shows 56% of coronavirus illnesses involved Hispanic workers, 19% were non-Hispanic Blacks and 12% were Asians.
It also showed that 13% of coronavirus cases involved white workers, who made up 39% of the overall workforce studied.
The psychological stress of social isolation may make people more susceptible to a severe Covid-19 infection, a scientist has claimed.
Dr Sheldon Cohen, a psychology professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania, said evidence from his previous research suggests social stressors are linked to an increased vulnerability to upper respiratory viruses, such as those which cause common cold.
He believes there is a possibility that the psychological effect of stay-at-home measures, adopted by countries around the world to slow down the spread of the virus by minimising contact between people, might play a similar role by increasing a person’s susceptibility to Covid-19 illness.
He said stay-at-home measures can increase interpersonal stressors, such as loneliness, loss of employment and familial conflict, which may be “powerful predictors of how a person will respond if exposed to coronavirus”.
Dr Cohen, who has published his hypothesis in the journal Perspectives in Psychological Science, claimed social integration and social support could offer a “protective shield” against coronavirus and other respiratory infections.
He said: “If you have a diverse social network (social integration), you tend to take better care of yourself (no smoking, moderate drinking, more sleep and exercise).
“Also if people perceive that those in their social network will help them during a period of stress or adversity (social support) then it attenuates the effect of the stressor and is less impactful on their health.”
Taxi drivers and people arriving at airports in England as well as NHS staff could be subject to mass coronavirus testing in efforts to identify asymptomatic people and their contacts, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has suggested.
He said certain groups within the population, as well as people in particular parts of the country, could be tested to try to better track Covid-19 infections.
Hunt has previously warned that the Government’s Test and Trace system “will fail” unless a way of reaching infected people is found.
He said: “I think looking at healthcare staff, looking at taxi drivers is another group, airport arrivals is another group.
“I think we need to think about mass testing amongst groups of the population as well as parts of the country like Leicester and so on, as our best way of finding out where the asymptomatics are and feeding them into the system so that their contacts can be isolated.”
Here are the latest developments:
- The US has surpassed three million confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker. It said there have been 131,960 deaths among the total of 3,022,899 cases.
- Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has vetoed provisions of a law that required the federal government to provide drinking water, disinfectants and a guarantee of hospital beds to indigenous communities amid the pandemic. Bolsonaro, who has tested positive for coronavirus, vetoed 16 parts of the law on efforts to address the coronavirus threat to the indigenous population, but still allowed for provisions on adequate testing, ambulance services and medical equipment.
- The number of coronavirus cases has passed the 301,000 mark in Chile, according to the Johns-Hopkins University tracker. The figure is currently 301,019, which is the sixth highest in the world after the US, Brazil, India, Russia, and Peru.
- The Australian city of Melbourne has begun a new lockdown after a surge of infections. Among the restrictions are that visits to other people’s homes are limited to if you are giving or receiving care or if you are in an “intimate personal relationship”.
- Italian authorities stopped 125 Bangladeshi people from entering the country today after they landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on a flight from Qatar. Yesterday, Italy suspended flights from Bangladesh for a week after 36 people who arrived in Rome on board a flight the day before tested positive for coronavirus.
- Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel has warned the European Union not to waste time in agreeing a recovery plan to pull the continent out of a historic recession caused by the coronavirus lockdown. Merkel said she hoped to see a deal before the summer break on a proposed €750bn recovery plan.
- Austria’s government has announced travel restrictions for fellow EU members Romania and Bulgaria after a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in both countries. Greece, which like Austria, has had a low number of infections and deaths compared with other European nations, has also expressed concern about imported cases from the Balkans.
- Iran’s coronavirus death toll exceeded 12,000 on Wednesday, the health ministry said, with 153 deaths in the past 24 hours, amid a sharp rise in the number of daily infections and deaths in the past week as lockdown measures have eased.
Coronavirus cases in Tennessee have increased by 2,472 to 55,986 on Wednesday, the biggest daily increase since the pandemic started, according to a tally by Reuters.
And in Utah, cases have risen by at least 685 to 26,825 with some counties yet to report, which is the biggest daily increase in the state to date.
Police in Serbia fired tear gas at protesters after being pelted with flares and stones as thousands protested in front of the Belgrade parliament despite warnings such gatherings could spread coronavirus.
The evening before, violence erupted when a crowd stormed parliament in protest at plans to reimpose a lockdown following a new spike in Covid-19 cases. Forty-three police officers and 17 protesters were injured and there were 23 arrests.
Hours before Wednesday’s protest, President Aleksandar Vucic called on people to stop attending anti-government rallies to avoid a further spread of the coronavirus, warning there were no beds left in hospitals.
“There are no free beds in our hospitals. We will open new hospitals,” he said in an address to the nation. He accused far-right groups and unspecified regional “intelligence officials” of orchestrating riots to “undermine Serbia’s position”.
Serbia has reported 17,076 Covid-19 cases and 341 deaths. Health authorities say hospitals are running at full capacity and staff are exhausted.
The number of new infections rose to 357 on Wednesday from 299 on Tuesday.
The French government said it was geared for a possible surge in coronavirus cases in the coming months but ruled out another nationwide lockdown.
“My aim is to prepare France for a possible second wave while preserving our daily life, our economic and social life,” new prime minister Jean Castex said in an interview on RTL television.
“But we’re not going to impose a lockdown like the one we did last March, because we’ve learned... that the economic and human consequences from a total lockdown are disastrous,” he said.
Instead business closures or stay-at-home orders would be “targeted” to specific areas, Castex added.
“The coronavirus is still here,” he warned, adding that he would travel Sunday to France’s South American territory of French Guiana, which is reeling from a surge in Covid-19 cases.
Officials reported 124 new cases in the territory on Tuesday, bringing the total to nearly 5,200, and the government has dispatched dozens of health workers from the mainland as well as a field hospital.
They also said that 32 people had died from Covid-19 in the latest 24-hour period, bringing the national toll to 29,965 since the first cases were reported in January.
Placing hamsters on an aeroplane could be one way of examining whether coronavirus can be spread through airborne transmission, an infectious disease specialist suggested.
Epidemiologist Professor David Heymann said further “complex studies” were needed to see if people could catch Covid-19 through air circulating on planes or through restaurant air conditioning systems.
He said scientists could use animal studies to test for the potential spread of the illness, an approach previously used for tuberculosis research.
Prof Heymann argued that “epidemiological indicators” in some countries where people could move about in public did not point to an “increased transmission” that may occur if the virus was airborne.
His comments come after the World Health Organisation (WHO) acknowledged there is “emerging evidence” that Covid-19 could be spread through particles in the air.
Bolsonaro vetoes plans to offer Covid-19 support to indigenous people
Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has vetoed provisions of a law that required the federal government to provide drinking water, disinfectants and a guarantee of hospital beds to indigenous communities amid the pandemic.
Bolsonaro, who has tested positive for coronavirus, vetoed 16 parts of the law on efforts to address the coronavirus threat to the indigenous population, but still allowed for provisions on adequate testing, ambulance services and medical equipment.
“The vetoes deny the minimum necessary for the survival of these communities,” Brazilian indigenous advocacy group Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) said in a statement.
“The vetoes reveal that the president’s plan is not to have a plan,” it said.
ISA called on Congress to overturn the vetoes, which it can do with sufficient votes.
The president also vetoed funding for the states and local governments with emergency plans for indigenous communities, as well as provisions to help give them more information on coronavirus, including greater internet access.
On the campaign trail, Bolsonaro swore to not to designate any more land for indigenous reserves. The right-wing populist has sought to assimilate indigenous peoples by calling for commercial farming and mining to be introduced on their reserves, saying it will raise them out of poverty.
The president’s office said those provisions in the law, approved by Congress, were “against the public interest” and “unconstitutional,” by creating expenses for the federal government without new sources of revenue to cover them.
Brazil’s indigenous population of roughly 850,000 is more vulnerable to Covid-19, as they live in remote areas with little access to health care systems and because their communal lifestyle rules out social distancing.
Updated
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has urged EU countries to show solidarity and overcome divisions to approve a massive coronavirus recovery plan this summer.
The leaders of the 27 EU states meet in Brussels next week for a crunch summit aimed at agreeing a 750-billion euro ($843-billion) plan to tackle economic devastation wrought by the pandemic.
Merkel met on Wednesday with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, and EU leaders, Charles Michel and David Sassoli, to prepare for the July 17-18 meeting.
In a joint statement, they underscored “that reaching swiftly an agreement on an ambitious European recovery package is the EU’s highest priority for the coming weeks.
In addition, they “stressed that it would be essential that Heads of State and Government reach an agreement during this European Council meeting.”
But a group of countries, a so-called “Frugal Four”, are trying to rein in spending, which is earmarked mainly for the poorer countries of southern Europe hardest hit by the pandemic.
“We need extraordinary solidarity - everyone is ready, especially Germany, to overcome the pandemic, to deal with its consequences”, Merkel told the European Parliament in a speech to mark Germany taking over the EU’s rotating presidency for six months.
Next week’s summit - the first physical meeting of leaders since travel restrictions were put in place to try to stem the spread of coronavirus - is set to be a fraught affair.
Austria, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden insist that loans with tough conditions attached, rather than grants, should be the preferred method of rescue and are not in a rush to make a deal.
Other countries argue that the plan, drawn up by the European Commission, misallocates the money, giving too much to eastern Europeans who were never on the front lines of the pandemic.
“Our common objective is to find a quick agreement as time is running out due to the economic crisis. We must not waste time. The poorest are paying the price”, Merkel said, urging all sides to make compromises.
Of the proposed 750 billion euros, 500 billion euros would be redistributed in the form of grants, with rest distributed as loans.
Number of cases recorded in Chile passes 301,000 mark
The number of coronavirus cases has passed the 301,000 mark in Chile, according to the Johns-Hopkins University tracker.
The figure is currently 301,019, which is the sixth highest in the world after the US, Brazil, India, Russia, and Peru.
Authorities in northeast Spain will start fining individuals who do not wear face masks 100 euros ($113) starting on Thursday when the use of masks becomes mandatory in Barcelona and the surrounding Catalonia region.
Spain ended a nationwide lockdown in mid-June after restrictions on movement and public activity succeeded in reining in the country’s virus outbreak after it had pushed the healthcare system to the breaking point and killed thousands of people.
But with most restrictions lifted and some people not following social-distancing rules, the number of confirmed new cases reported daily in Spain has begun to creep up. Confirmed cases doubled between Tuesday and Wednesday amid dozens of small outbreaks.
The biggest increase was in the Catalonia region, with 52 new confirmed cases in a 24-hour period and nearly 2,000 in the past two weeks.
US hits 3 million confirmed coronavirus cases
The US has surpassed three million confirmed cases of coronavirus, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
It represents around a quarter of the world’s total cases. US-based Johns Hopkins records that there have been 131,594 deaths among the total of 3,016,515 cases.
New York City students will return to their schools two or three days a week and learn online the rest of the time, under a plan announced by mayor Bill de Blasio.
Most schools will not be able to have all their kids in school at the same time, he added.
De Blasio said parents will have the option of online-only instruction for their children, but he said 75% of parents who answered a survey want their children in school in September.
Governor Andrew Cuomo, who has clashed with de Blasio repeatedly over control of the city’s schools and other issues, said all school districts statewide must submit plans for reopening by July 31 and state officials will decide in the first week of August whether to accept the plans and whether schools will reopen.
“They can submit a plan, the plan will be reviewed and then we will accept or deny the specific plan or ask for alterations on the specific plan and then make a global decision as to whether or not any school district will reopen and that will be the first week of August,” said Cuomo.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 2,982,900 cases of coronavirus on Wednesday, an increase of 50,304 cases from its previous count.
It said that the number of deaths had risen by 932 to 131,065.
The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
Summary
Here are the latest developments:
- The Australian city of Melbourne has begun a new lockdown after a surge of infections. Among the restrictions are that visits to other people’s homes are limited to if you are giving or receiving care or if you are in an “intimate personal relationship”.
- Italian authorities stopped 125 Bangladeshi people from entering the country today after they landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on a flight from Qatar. Yesterday, Italy suspended flights from Bangladesh for a week after 36 people who arrived in Rome on board a flight the day before tested positive for coronavirus.
- Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel has warned the European Union not to waste time in agreeing a recovery plan to pull the continent out of a historic recession caused by the coronavirus lockdown. Merkel said she hoped to see a deal before the summer break on a proposed €750bn recovery plan.
- Austria’s government has announced travel restrictions for fellow EU members Romania and Bulgaria after a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in both countries. Greece, which like Austria, has had a low number of infections and deaths compared with other European nations, has also expressed concern about imported cases from the Balkans.
- Iran’s coronavirus death toll exceeded 12,000 on Wednesday, the health ministry said, with 153 deaths in the past 24 hours, amid a sharp rise in the number of daily infections and deaths in the past week as lockdown measures have eased.
Italy plans to monitor wastewater nationwide for a possible early warning about any renewed outbreak of Covid-19 infections, the National Institute of Health (ISS) said today, Reuters reports:
The move underscores Italy’s hope to be well prepared for any new wave of the coronavirus. Italy became one of the countries hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year; to date, it has recorded 242,149 cases and 34,914 deaths.
The wastewater-monitoring project will focus on priority sites such as tourist resorts in a first phase starting this month. It will be expanded in October with a surveillance network extended to all Italian cities.
The programme, coordinated by the ISS, will take in regional agencies, local health authorities, universities and 50 utility companies. Samples taken from water before it enters urban waste-treatment plants will be examined for any traces of the virus in the population, according to the ISS.
“This approach can anticipate...where the virus is circulating in our country,* said Luca Lucentini, Director of the Water Quality and Health Department of the ISS.
Last month the Italian National Institute of Health reported that scientists had found traces of the coronavirus in wastewater collected from Milan and Turin in December 2019, suggesting Covid-19 was already circulating in northern Italy before China reported the first cases.
Research in the Netherlands, France, Australia and elsewhere has found signs that the virus that causes Covid-19 can be detected in sewage, and many countries are beginning to sample wastewater to track the disease
The number of deaths in France from Covid-19 has risen by 32 from the previous day to stand at 29,965 the country’s health department said today.
That figure is almost twice as high as the daily average of 18 seen over the last seven days and more akin to last month’s toll. In June, France counted 34 additional deaths every day on average, in May the figure was 143 and in April it was 695. France has the sixth-largest death toll in the world.
Canada handled the coronavirus outbreak better than many of its allies, including the United States, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday in a rare public comment on the faltering US effort, Reuters reports.
Canada - with a population a tenth of the size of the United States - has so far recorded 8,711 deaths and 106,167 cases and Trudeau said the situation was stabilising, although some hotspots remained.
In contrast, the United States has recorded more than 3 million cases and 131,000 deaths. Authorities have reported alarming upswings of daily case loads in roughly two dozen states over the past two weeks.
“We were able to control the virus better than many of our allies, particularly including our neighbour,” Trudeau told a briefing, saying this would help efforts to restart the economy.
Canada and the United States have blocked nonessential travel between the two nations since March and are discussing whether to extend the ban when it expires on 21 July.
Although Trudeau’s relations with the US president, Donald Trump, have been good over the last 18 months, he skipped a Washington meeting today to herald the start of a new continental trade agreement with the United States and Mexico.
Trudeau, who would have had to enter a 14-day quarantine period on his return, repeated concerns about the possible imposition of US tariffs on Canadian exports of aluminium.
In an update to a truly horrific story, French prosecutors have today charged two men with attempted murder after a bus driver was assaulted and left brain dead for refusing to let aboard a group of people who were not wearing face masks.
Four men set upon 59-year-old Philippe Monguillot in the southwestern town of Bayonne on Sunday after he asked three of them to wear masks and tried to check another man’s ticket.
Face masks remain mandatory on public transport in France to slow the Covid-19 outbreak, which has claimed nearly 30,000 lives in the country.
The US president, Donald Trump, has threatened to cut off funding to schools that do not open in the fall and criticised a federal health agency’s guidelines for reopening schools as “very tough & expensive”. From Reuters:
The Republican president, who is seeking re-election in November, accused Democrats of wanting to keep schools shut for political reasons, despite a surge in coronavirus cases across the country.
In Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and many other countries, SCHOOLS ARE OPEN WITH NO PROBLEMS. The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families. May cut off funding if not open!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020
It was not clear what specific federal aid the Republican president had in mind. States are responsible for primary and secondary education under the US constitution, but the federal government provides some supplementary funding.
Trump also took aim at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the nation’s health protection agency whose director sits on the White House coronavirus task force.
I disagree with @CDCgov on their very tough & expensive guidelines for opening schools. While they want them open, they are asking schools to do very impractical things. I will be meeting with them!!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 8, 2020
The White House did not elaborate on which CDC guidelines Trump took issue with.
The CDC has recommended a number of considerations for schools, including testing, dividing students into small groups, serving packaged lunches in classrooms instead of cafeterias, and minimiSing sharing of school supplies. It advised sneeze guards and partitions be put in place when social distancing is not possible, and that seats be spaced at least six feet apart.
Yesterday, Trump held meetings about school reopenings at the White House and said he would pressure state governors to open schools in the fall. The White House coronavirus task force is meeting at the Department of Education today and will hold a news briefing afterward.
Business and conservative groups have urged reopening schools safely as important to getting parents back to work and reviving the US economy.
Educators say socialisation and other benefits such as school food programs are critically important. Experts have also shown online learning exacerbates the divide between poorer and more wealthy Americans, who have greater access to technology.
The alarming surge in cases in the United States, however, has raised concerns about the increased risk of spread of the virus by children to vulnerable adults at home as well as to older teachers and school staff.
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy said today he planned to reopen state schools in the fall, but reserved the right to “tweak that if it means saving lives.
Residents of Moscow will be permitted to visit the theatre again from next month, authorities said today as coronavirus infections in Russia – the fourth highest in the world – edged past 700,000.
Theatre audiences at 50% capacity will be allowed, President Vladimir Putin’s special representative for international cultural cooperation Mikhail Shvydkoy was quoted as saying by the Tass news agency. Shvydkoy added that he hoped this percentage could be increased by September. Theatres will have been closed for four months by the time they reopen.
Russia’s nationwide case tally stood at 700,792 as of today, behind only India, Brazil and the US, while 10,667 people have died from the virus, according to official data.
However, since measures meant to slow the spread of the virus began to be eased in May, the number of new cases recorded each day has been on a downward trend. Russia says 472,511 people have recovered from the virus.
Some businesses returned to work in May, following a nationwide non-working period in April, while in Moscow, the epicentre of Russia’s outbreak, the phased reopening of shops, restaurants and gyms came in June.
Also today, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the country’s coronavirus situation was leaning towards improving and that there was cause for more optimistic forecasts.
Updated
Italian authorities stopped 125 Bangladeshi people from entering the country on Wednesday after they landed at Rome’s Fiumicino airport on a flight from Qatar.
The move comes as Italy tries to contain an outbreak of coronavirus among the Bangladeshi community in the Lazio region. The passengers will return to Doha on the same flight later today, while those who disembarked were tested for Covid-19 and quarantined for 14 days.
Yesterday, Italy suspended flights from Bangladesh for a week after 36 people who arrived in Rome on board a flight the day before tested positive for coronavirus.
Lazio authorities estimate that as many as 600 Bangladeshi citizens in Rome and the surrounding areas could potentially have the virus. Alesso D’Amato, Lazio’s health councillor, told Il Messaggero:
Our experts made calculations based on the data obtained from the sample of passengers on the flight that arrived from Dhaka on Monday in which 13% of the passengers tested positive. The result is very worrying when taking into account all the flights, including those with a stopover, that brought Bangladeshi migrants back to Italy.
The newspaper also reported that several people on Monday’s flight arrived in Italy with fake certificates, purchased from medics in Bangladesh, declaring they had tested negative for Covid-19.
Authorities in Greece are becoming increasingly worried by the rising number of “imported” coronavirus cases the country is seeing since it re-opened its borders last week. The National Organisation of Public Health said 14 out of the 27 new confirmed cases reported on Tuesday were identified “after tests at ports of entry”.
Four foreign tourists tested positive for the virus on the island of Thassos in the northern Aegean. All four were described by the Greek media as asymptomatic and citizens of Serbia and Bulgaria, which have both seen a spike in infections.
“Nothing is over. I appeal to you to please see what is happening around us in the Balkans,” said Athens’ deputy citizens’ protection minister Nikos Hardalias who has been handling the day to day management of the pandemic.
To date, 3,589 people have tested positive for the highly infectious disease in Greece, much lower than most other countries in Europe following application of stringent lockdown measures. There have been 193 deaths related to Covid-19.
Athens announced it will be lifting its ban on flights from the UK on Wednesday next week, almost four months after air links were suspended.
You can read about the details of Melbourne’s lockdown here. It bars visiting other people’s houses except for giving or receiving care or if you are in an “intimate personal relationship” with them.
The coronavirus pandemic is showing the limits of “fact-denying populism,” the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has told the European parliament, as she set out her country’s plans for its six-month presidency of the European Union, the Associated Press reports.
Germany took over the task of chairing EU meetings on 1 July and faces the challenge of seeking a compromise on a coronavirus recovery fund for the 27-nation bloc as well as the EU’s budget for the next seven years as the continent faces up to the task of pulling out of a deep recession.
“The depth of the economic decline demands that we hurry,” Merkel told MEPs. “We must waste no time — only the weakest would suffer from that. I very much hope that we can reach an agreement this summer. That will require a lot of readiness to compromise from all sides — and from you too.”
“We must not be naive: In many member states, opponents of Europe are just waiting to misuse the crisis for their ends,” she said. “We must show them all where the added value of cooperation in the European Union lies. We must show that a return to nationalism means not more, but less control.”
Without naming any countries or politicians, Merkel pointed to cautionary examples elsewhere.
“We are seeing at the moment that the pandemic can’t be fought with lies and disinformation, and neither can it be with hatred and agitation,” she said.
“Fact-denying populism is being shown its limits,” she added to applause. “In a democracy, facts and transparency are needed. That distinguishes Europe, and Germany will stand up for it during its presidency.”
Britain’s last governor of Hong Kong has accused China of “taking advantage of the coronavirus pandemic to bully other countries, as he urged the west to stand up to Beijing, French news agency AFP reports.
Chris Patten, who served as the former British colony’s governor for five years from 1992 and oversaw its 1997 return to Chinese rule, also said Chinese authorities had exploited the global health emergency to impose a controversial security law on the territory.
“What’s happened in Hong Kong is just part of a broader series of actions taken by the Chinese communist party taking advantage of the fact that we’re all of us focused very much on dealing with the coronavirus,” he told an online discussion organised by British MPs.
“From India to Japan... to Australia to Canada, the Chinese have been bullying their way around the world,” he added.
“We have to learn how to contain China when it behaves badly.”
Beijing imposed the security legislation on Hong Kong last week, in response to huge and often violent democracy protests that erupted last year. It targets acts of subversion, secession, terrorism and foreign collusion.
The law’s imposition, which bypassed the territory’s legislature, is the most radical change in its freedoms and autonomy since the 1997 handover. Police have already arrested people voicing certain political views now deemed illegal, such as advocating independence or greater autonomy.
Updated
Armenia’s defence minister, Gabriel Balayan, is among a further 535 people in the country who have tested positive for coronavirus, bringing its total caseload to 29,820, according to Xinhua, China’s official news agency.
In its latest update, the national centre for disease control and prevention said that 18 people had died from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 521. The number of recoveries so far in the country is 17,427, with a further 520 patients listed as having shaken off the virus.
Updated
Austria’s government has announced travel restrictions for fellow EU members Romania and Bulgaria after a spike in the number of coronavirus cases in both countries, AFP reports:
Speaking after a cabinet meeting, chancellor Sebastian Kurz said he was issuing an urgent appeal to Austrians not to travel to those countries. Returning travellers would have to undergo a mandatory 14-day quarantine or provide a recent negative test, he added. The restrictions will also apply to Moldova.
“We have seen that there are more and more imported coronavirus cases from these countries,” Kurz said.
In recent weeks, there have been about 170 imported cases recorded in Austria, most of them having originated in the Balkans, said Kurz.
Austria last week issued travel warnings for several other Balkan states, including Serbia and Montenegro, despite an EU recommendation to lift travel restrictions.
Checks along Austria’s borders with Slovenia and Hungary will also be doubled, targeting travellers coming from the Balkans.
Romania today reported 555 new infections, the biggest one-day increase yet, which Raed Arafat, an emergency department official blamed on people not respecting the rules.
“We’ve seen an increase in the number of campaigns denying that the virus is real,” Arafat told the Digi24 TV station.
In Bulgaria, the number of weekly cases has doubled from between 500 and 550 in mid-June to more than 1,100 over the past week.
Austria has been spared the worst of the pandemic, with 18,444 cases and 706 deaths.
However, there has been a marked recent rise in infections, averaging 92 per day over the past week.
Updated
Hello, this is Damien Gayle taking over the blog for a little while, while Haroon takes a break. If you have any comments, tips or suggestions drop me a line at damien.gayle@theguardian.com or via Twitter to @damiengayle.
The number of coronavirus recoveries has exceeded 20,000 in Afghanistan as the health ministry reported a further 17 deaths and 210 new cases, while three new polio cases were reported in Helmand and Kandahar, amid raging war across the country.
The health ministry has detected the new Covid-19 infections from 591 tests, taking the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 33,594. The number of deaths stands at 937. The war-torn country, which has admitted it has a lack of testing capacity, has tested 77,510 suspected patients since the outbreak began. The number of recovered patients has reached 20,700.
The country’s health ministry has said that Afghanistan has reached the peak of coronavirus as daily infections are dropping in recent days. The ministry has said several times said it has the capacity to carry out 2,000 tests a day but has never reached that mark.
Two new Polio cases were reported in Helmand and one in Kandahar on Tuesday. The country’s health ministry has raised concerns about new Polio cases as vaccination campaigns paused due to the coronavirus pandemic for the last three months. The health ministry has detected 26 new Polio cases in the first six months of this year, compared with 13 in the same period of last year and 29 cases in the whole of 2019.
Updated
Italy is lobbying the EU to introduce precautionary measures for passengers travelling to European Union countries from outside the bloc to contain the spread of Covid-19, Reuters reports.
Italy has suspended all flights from Bangladesh for one week due to a “significant number” of passengers who arrived on a flight to Rome on Monday testing positive for the virus.
In a letter addressed to the EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, and his German counterpart, Jens Spahn, Italy’s health minister, Roberto Speranza, said:
I would consider it appropriate to outline together new rigorous precautionary measures for arrivals from non-Schengen and non-EU areas.
New Melbourne lockdown to start shortly
Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrew is reintroducing restrictions across the city after a record high of 191 cases were recorded on Tuesday.
The lockdown begins at 11.59pm local time on Wednesday and will last for six weeks.
As during the previous stage three lockdown, the four reasons to leave the house are: shopping for food and essential items, care and caregiving, daily exercise, work and study. But if you can work or study from home, you must.
For all you need to know about the new lockdown, read my colleague Luke Henriques-Gomes’s guide:
The European commission has struck deals with drugmakers Roche and Merck KGaA to secure supplies of experimental treatments for Covid-19, Reuters reports, citing a Commission source:
The deals cover Roche’s arthritis medicine RoActemra and Merck’s multiple sclerosis drug Rebif – both seen as potential treatments for Covid-19 – and will secure supplies to any of the 27 EU member states willing to buy them, the source said. The source, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the topic, did not disclose the terms of the deals. Roche, Merck and a commission spokeswoman were not immediately available for comment.
The deals follow requests from EU states in May to acquire the two drugs and come as governments around the world jostle for access to potential therapies and vaccines against Covid-19, even before their efficacy is proven.
Roche is doing a late-stage, 330-patient trial of Actemra, known as RoActemra in some markets, in Covid-19 patents after the anti-inflammatory drug used against rheumatoid arthritis was deployed in China in patients suffering from a severe immune system reaction. The medicine has also been tested on Covid-19 patients in combination with Gilead’s antiviral remdesivir, the only drug so far authorised by the EU for use against Covid-19. In early June, an Italian trial of Actemra in patients with early-stage Covid-19 showed it failed to help them.
Rebif was developed by Swiss biotech firm Serono before Merck bought the company. Both drugs target proteins in the body associated with inflammation, and there is some hope they may help severely ill Covid-19 patients suffering from a so-called cytokine storm, an immune system reaction that in can lead to organ failure.
The companies said in letters to the Commission that they could meet demand from EU countries, the source said, declining to name the EU states that had expressed interest in the drugs. EU countries will now have to agree with the companies on the supplies needed, the source added.
Brussels is also in talks with Gilead to obtain doses of remdesivir for member states and boost its production capacity. It also wants to reserve supplies of vaccines being developed by Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi.
In June, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands said they had secured 400 million doses of a potential Covid-19 vaccine developed by Britain’s AstraZeneca . Concerns over remdesivir’s availability were ignited after Gilead pledged almost all its output to the United States.
Updated
In England, the hospital serving the constituency of the prime minister, Boris Johnson, has closed to emergency admissions due to a coronavirus outbreak.
Seventy staff members are isolating after the outbreak at Hillingdon hospital.
A spokesman for Hillingdon hospitals NHS foundation trust said:
An outbreak of Covid-19 was declared on Friday, July 3, 2020. As of Tuesday, 7 July, 70 members of staff are now isolating, a number of whom have tested positive for Covid-19.
As a result, the trust has taken the precautionary decision to close Hillingdon hospital to emergency ambulances and emergency admissions.
In April, a healthcare worker at the hospital quit her job after she was refused permission to wear a protective face mask
Tracy Brennan chastised her superiors at Hillingdon hospitals NHS foundation trust for forbidding her from wearing a surgical mask she had bought to protect herself – and the patients she was caring for – from contracting the deadly virus.
Updated
Iran’s coronavirus death toll exceeded 12,000 on Wednesday, the health ministry said, with 153 deaths in the past 24 hours, amid a sharp rise in the number of daily infections and deaths in the past week as lockdown measures have eased, Reuters reports.
The total number of infections has reached 248,379, with 209,463 people having recovered, ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said in a statement on state TV.
Iran recorded 200 deaths from Covid-19 within a 24-hour period on Tuesday, the highest official figure recorded by the ministry.
President Hassan Rouhani on Saturday launched new measures to try to curb the spread. Iranians who do not wear masks will be denied state services and workplaces that fail to comply with health protocols will be shut for a week, he said.
State TV has regularly aired interviews in recent days with reporters questioning people on public transport and in shopping malls why they were not wearing masks. Some said they did not feel a sense of urgency, others said the masks were uncomfortable.
wearing a face mask during a cabinet meeting in Tehran today Photograph: President Office Handout/EPA
Updated
More than 860,000 people have downloaded Ireland’s new Covid-19 tracker app since it went live yesterday, RTE reports.
Acting chief medical officer Dr Ronan Glynn said:
The app is an important tool to support our contact tracing systems. It has the potential to reduce the time that people are active in the community with infection, which will have a significant impact on the transmission of the disease.
The more people who download and use this app, the more effective it will be. It is a further opportunity for us to play our part in the response to Covid-19.
Ireland has so far had 1,742 Covid-19-related deaths and 25,538 confirmed cases. It’s latest figures, published on Tuesday, showed 24 new cases and one more death.
A report by the Independent Sage (scientific advisory group for emergencies), published on Tuesday, said Ireland, along with Northern Ireland and Scotland, has the virus under control and are well placed to achieve elimination of the virus”.
Updated
Hello, this is Haroon Siddique taking over the blog.
If you want to get in touch, you can do so via the following channels:
Twitter: Haroon_Siddique
Email: haroon[dot]siddique[at]theguardian[dot]com
That’s all from me Caroline Davies . Thank you for your time.
On the issue of the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, see 8.57am post, a reader has pointed to research by the Detroit-based Henry Ford System , which offers another view.
Updated
The Netherlands shut its borders to people from Serbia and Montenegro again today, a week after opening them, citing a rapid rise in coronavirus infections in both countries.
Travellers from Serbia and Montenegro regained access to the Netherlands on 1 July when the Dutch, following European Union guidelines, reopened their borders to a list of 14 countries outside the bloc.
But the government said a rise in coronavirus infections in Serbia and Montenegro had forced it to take those countries off the list again, and that Dutch travellers should only visit them if absolutely necessary.
Serbia declared a lockdown in Belgrade over the coming weekend due to the Covid-19 surge, sparking overnight rioting in the capital in which dozens were injured.
Earlier on Wednesday, Austria issued travel warnings for Bulgaria, Romania and Moldova because of the worsening coronavirus situation there, Reuters reports.
Updated
Israel is confronting a resurgence of coronavirus by putting a West Bank settlement into lockdown, while its controversial tracking system comes under fire for reportedly putting thousands into quarantine unnecessarily.
Israel was praised for quickly tackling the pandemic when it emerged earlier this year, imposing strict stay-home orders, but there has been a spike in infections following the easing of restrictions.
More than 1,300 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Israeli over the past day, while there have been 343 deaths in total.
The increase prompted Israel to last month reimpose the tracking system administered by its domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, but its accuracy in ordering people to self-isolate is now being questioned.
Israelis found no way of appealing against messages saying they had come into contact with someone with coronavirus, when they had not actually been in the same place, Haaretz newspaper reported.
A Shin Bet spokesperson did not immediately respond to the Guardian’s request to comment on the apparent failings, which are expected to be discussed between security and government officials later on Wednesday.
The Israeli government has started reimposing measures, such as shutting gyms and bars, and on Wednesday made the settlement of Beitar Illit a “restricted zone” for a week over an outbreak of the virus there.
The move shutters businesses and limits access to the town, home to around 60,000 people, a decision the mayor said was made without him being consulted.
“I simply don’t understand where sanity has disappeared to,” the mayor, Meir Rubinstein, told Army Radio.
Rather than cut off the settlement, a measure that has also been imposed on other Israeli towns and neighbourhoods, the mayor wants coronavirus patients to be quarantined in hotels as authorities have done in the past.
Settlements are home to 450,000 Israelis and are viewed as illegal under international law. More than 3 million Palestinians live in the rest of the West Bank, where the Palestinian Authority re-imposed a lockdown on Friday.
About 400 cases have been registered among Palestinians in the West Bank over the past day, with at least 18 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Updated
In Serbia, protesters and police clashed violently in Belgrade on Tuesday evening amid anger over the return of strict lockdown measures to tackle coronavirus. Earlier on Tuesday, a weekend curfew was announced after a rise in Covid-19 cases in Serbia and across the western Balkans.
A group of protesters stormed the parliament in Belgrade, and police responded with teargas and a show of force. A police spokesperson said protesters threw rocks, bottles and other objects at officers and set five police vehicles on fire. Police said 23 people were detained and 43 police officers were injured. Seventeen demonstrators also sustained injuries.
On Tuesday, Serbia recorded a further 13 coronavirus deaths, its highest daily toll to date, as well as 299 newly recorded infections.
“Nobody can endure these numbers. We don’t want to kill our doctors,” said the president, Aleksandar Vučić, announcing the strict weekend curfew. He said a government body would decide whether it should apply nationwide or only to the capital.
Updated
In Spain , Catalonia’s regional authorities will today decide to make it mandatory to wear masks regardless of people’s ability to maintain a safe distance, becoming the country’s first region to do so, Catalan regional leader Quim Torra said.
Torra said the measure would come into force on Thursday, Reuters reports.
Wearing masks indoors and outdoors is mandatory in Spain if people cannot guarantee a 1.5-metre distance from one another until a cure or vaccine for the virus is found.
Updated
More than 50,000 people crossed the border into New South Wales on Wednesday, with hours-long queues forming at checkpoints in Albury-Wodonga as police and residents were hampered by delays in the online permit system.
It comes as the premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned NSW residents living along the Murray River that they could face travel restrictions within their own state due to the “extremely high” risk of the virus spreading north from Melbourne.
The border between NSW and Victoria closed for the first time in 101 years at midnight on Tuesday, and more than 44,000 people – mostly people living along the border – have applied for and received a permit to travel.
In the morning, locals reported it took up to an hour and a half to make the 5km drive from Wodonga to Albury on the Lincoln Causeway. By Wednesday afternoon, the ABC reported that traffic was moving more quickly.
Police in the southern New South Wales border city of Albury check cars crossing the state border from Victoria on Wednesday. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty Images
Read more here
Updated
President Trump’s decision to take the US out of the World Health Organization has been described as “really sad” by Dr David Nabarro, the global agency’s special envoy on Covid-19.
Nabarro told the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme:
The world is facing a massive health crisis, it’s been extremely bad for the last six months and I fear it’s going to get much worse in the next six months.
We’ve still got a lot to find out about this virus, and how to deal with it – and it just seems really unfortunate that the most important country, in terms of size of the WHO budget, has decided to pull out.
Dr David Nabarro, the World Health Organisation's envoy for Covid, says President Trump's decision to leave will have a budgetary impact as the WHO is "underfunded" and America pulling out is "not what the world's people need" R4Todayhttps://t.co/mVt1kwaspP
— BBC Radio 4 Today (@BBCr4today) July 8, 2020
He added that he was sure the majority of American people “wanted to be part of the global response and will be a bit confused about why this has happened”.
“All world leaders, all world nations must work together to deal with this virus. To have the US pulling out is not what the world’s people need.”
Updated
Half a million confirmed cases across Africa
Africa now has more than 500,000 confirmed coronavirus cases.
The total across the continent is now at least more than 504,000 after South Africa recorded another day of more than 10,000 confirmed cases as a new global hot spot, the Associated Press reports.
The true number of cases among Africas 1.3 billion people is unknown as its 54 countries continue to face a serious shortage of testing materials for the virus. A tremendous problem, a real crisis of access, the World Health Organization’s Africa chief, Matshidiso Moeti, said last week.
So far most testing has been concentrated in capital cities, but infections in many cases have spread beyond them.
Africas health systems are the most poorly funded and thinly staffed in the world, and already more than 2,000 health workers have been infected by the virus, according to the WHO.
This week alone, some anxious health workers in Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Congo and Sierra Leone have gone on strike or demonstrated for adequate protective gear or better pay.
The African continent has just 2.2 health workers and 0.3 doctors per 1,000 people, according to the WHO.
Experts have warned that even if badly needed supplies such as ventilators are provided to African nations, another challenge is having enough trained workers to operate them.
Updated
Despite Bolsonaro saying he is confident he will swiftly recover from coronavirus thanks to treatment with the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine , it has not been proven effective against Covid-19.
See more here
and here
Updated
More on how Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro downplayed Covid-19 in this video
More on “evidence emerging” of airborne Covid-19 spread in this World Health Organization video:
Updated
Malaysian budget carrier AirAsia’s future is in “significant doubt” due to the collapse in demand for air travel caused by coronavirus its auditor has warned.
AirAsia, which shook up south-east Asian budget air travel with its slogan “Now everyone can fly”, reported a record quarterly loss of 803m ringgit ($187m) for the first three months of the year.
Trading in AirAsia’s shares was halted on Wednesday morning but later resumed, AFP reports.
Auditor Ernst & Young said on Tuesday that “travel and border restrictions implemented by countries around the world has led to a significant fall in demand for air travel which impacted the group’s financial performance and cash flows”.
It noted the “existence of material uncertainties that may cast significant doubt on the group’s and the company’s ability to continue as a going concern”, in an unqualified audit opinion statement to the Kuala Lumpur stock exchange.
Updated
In Australia, as the Melbourne metropolitan area goes back into lockdown, it has emerged that almost two dozen healthcare workers and patients have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in recent weeks in Victoria.
You can read more here:
Updated
The UK government is facing urgent calls to save Britain’s 250-year-old circus tradition with companies warning that they will go bust within two weeks without help.
The Association of Circus Proprietors has said performers have been reduced to using food banks to survive since circuses were shut down temporarily by Covid-19.
You can read more here.
Updated
Hi. This is Caroline Davies taking over the blog for the next few hours. You can contact me on caroline.davies@theguardian.com.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. Thanks for following along.
If you’re just joining us, here is a quote about fireflies from which to draw inspiration for the day ahead: “The brief shining of the light is so impressive, making me feel that I also have to live my best.”
Warning of serious brain disorders in people with mild Covid symptoms
Doctors may be missing signs of serious and potentially fatal brain disorders triggered by coronavirus, as they emerge in mildly affected or recovering patients, UK scientists have warned.
Neurologists are on Wednesday publishing details of more than 40 UK Covid-19 patients whose complications ranged from brain inflammation and delirium to nerve damage and stroke. In some cases, the neurological problem was the patient’s first and main symptom.
Sturgeon urges caution as Covid-19 deaths fall
The Guardian’s Severin Carrell and Pamela Duncan report:
In Scotland, the days when Nicola Sturgeon had to report scores of Covid-19 deaths at the height of the pandemic are a distant memory. Over the past weekend there was a four-day period without a single death recorded in the country’s hospitals.
Buoyed by those figures, and a continuing, steady, decline in coronavirus infections, the first minister hopes Scotland could soon eliminate the virus so is resisting heavy pressure from businesses to quickly ease the strict lockdown.
Airports, wedding companies, hoteliers and bar owners have been clamouring for distancing rules to be relaxed, for air quarantine rules to be waived to the same extent as at English airports, and for the hospitality trade to resume.
Updated
Still in Australia, New South Wales state police have arrested a man who tried to cross the NSW/Victoria border without a permit.
According to a police statement, a car bearing Victorian number plates attempted to drive into NSW on Carlyle Road, Corowa, shortly after 11am.
“Officers from Murray River Police District spoke with the driver, who allegedly declared his intention to cross into NSW despite not having a valid exemption,” the statement said.
“The 34-year-old Victorian man was arrested and taken to Albury Police Station, where he is currently assisting police with inquiries,
“The man’s wife and three children complied with police direction and returned to Victoria,
“The public is reminded it is an offence to enter NSW from Victoria without a valid exemption,” the statement said.
More than 50,000 vehicles have crossed the border from Victoria into NSW since midnight last night.
Updated
In Australia, health officials from the New South Wales health department are contacting passengers who travelled on Jetstar flight JQ520 overnight, from Melbourne to Sydney, after airline staff “mistakenly allowed passengers to leave the gate before they had been screened by health staff”
Passengers have been asked to self isolate for 14 days (and will be provided with accommodation if they can’t) as well as go for testing at the drive-through screening test site at Summer Hill.
Updated
The great reopening – how Britain’s galleries Covid-proofed themselves
Today, the National Gallery in London is reopening after Covid-19 abruptly shut the doors of British museums in mid-March. But Kettle’s Yard gallery in Cambridge, like many others, is taking a slower, phased approach. The institution regularly hosts shows in its new, airy galleries – an exhibition from the artist Linder will be extended into the autumn – but at its heart is the home of its founder, curator and collector Jim Ede. This takes the form of a series of knocked-through cottages, their awkward-shaped rooms brimming with art and delicate objects. It is meant to be a warm, hospitable place where visitors are allowed the freedom to sit in armchairs, leaf through books left out on tables, and generally feel at home. All of which also makes it a social-distancing nightmare.
Jair Bolsonaro says he is taking hydroxychloroquine to cure his Covid-19 infection
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro says he is confident that he will swiftly recover from the new coronavirus thanks to treatment with hydroxychloroquine, the anti-malaria drug that has not been proven effective against Covid-19.
Bolsonaro said he tested positive for the new coronavirus on Tuesday after months of downplaying its severity while deaths mounted rapidly inside the country.
The president told reporters he underwent a lung X-ray on Monday after experiencing fever, muscle aches and malaise. As of Tuesday, his fever had subsided, he said, and he attributed the improvement to hydroxychloroquine.
Later on Tuesday, he posted a video to Facebook of him taking his third dose of hydroxychloroquine, which has also been promoted by President Donald Trump.
“Today I’m a lot better, so certainly it’s working,” Bolsonaro said, downing the dose with a glass of water. “We know today there are other remedies that can help fight the coronavirus. We know none of them have their efficacy scientifically proven, but I’m one more person for whom this is working. So I trust hydroxychloroquine. And you?”
Brazil, the world’s sixth-biggest nation, with more than 210 million people, is one of the outbreak’s most lethal hot spots. More than 65,000 Brazilians have died from Covid-19, and over 1.5 million have been infected.
Both numbers are the worlds second-highest totals, behind those of the US, though the true figures are believed to be higher because of a lack of widespread testing. On Tuesday alone, 1,254 deaths were confirmed.
Other world leaders who have had bouts of Covid-19 include British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Britain’s Prince Charles, Prince Albert II of Monaco and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández.
Updated
Summary
Here are the key global developments from the last few hours:
-
There are nearly 11.8m confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, and 543,558 known deaths.
- Britain to reveal post-coronavirus recovery plan. Britain will Wednesday unveil a mini-budget to kickstart the UK economy, hoping costly infrastructure investment will help build its way out of the crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak. Finance minister Rishi Sunak is due to deliver his spending plans at 1130 GMT, having already flagged £3 billion (US$3.7 billion, €3.3bn) of green investment.
- Washington has formally begun the process of leaving the World Health Organization. The US will withdraw on 6 July 2021 under a 1948 joint resolution of the US Congress, which also obliges Washington to pay financial support. Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger for the presidency, said he would return the US to the WHO once elected.
- The WHO says coronavirus cases are increasing by 200,000 a day, doubling from April and May. The WHO emergencies chief said that the number of Covid-19 deaths appeared to be stable for the moment, but he cautioned that there is often a lag time between when confirmed cases increase and when deaths are reported due to the time it takes for the coronavirus to run its course in patients.
- The World Health Organization on Tuesday acknowledged “evidence emerging” of the airborne spread of the coronavirus, after a group of scientists urged the global body to update its guidance on how the respiratory disease passes between people.
- New Zealand opposition MP who leaked details of Covid-19 patients steps down. An opposition MP in New Zealand has announced he will not stand at September’s election after he confessed to leaking private details about all of the country’s active Covid-19 cases to several news outlets.
- Australia to consider limiting returning residents, PM Morrison says. Australia’s coronavirus emergency cabinet will consider limiting the number of its citizens and residents returning home from overseas, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday. The prime minister added there were no plans to reimpose restrictions across the country, after Victoria, the country’s second-most populous state, enforced stay-at-home rules in metropolitan Melbourne and one regional area due to a spike in infections.
- Victoria reported 134 new coronavirus cases as NSW warns of border region restrictions. fter the New South Wales-Victoria state border closed at midnight on Tuesday, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned the risk of contagion spreading into her state was “very high” and said even tougher border restrictions might be implemented targeting those living in border communities such as Albury.
-
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for Covid-19. He said he began feeling ill on Sunday and has been taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug with unproven effectiveness against Covid-19.
- Brazil has recorded another 1,312 deaths and more than 48,000 new cases. According to a coalition of Brazilian news outlets keeping an independent tally, that takes Brazil’s total death toll to nearly 67,000, the second highest number in the world. Brazil has now registered 1.67 million confirmed cases, including that of Brazil’s far-right leader who is facing domestic and international condemnation for his handling of the crisis.
- Israel’s public health director has quit amid a spike in new coronavirus cases, saying the country had been too hasty to reopen its economy and had lost its way in dealing with the pandemic. Siegal Sadetzki, an epidemiologist, announced her resignation a day after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reimposed a series of restrictions, including the closure of bars, gyms and event halls.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 397 to 197,341, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Wednesday.
The reported death toll rose by 12 to 9,036, the tally showed.
UK Chancellor Rishi Sunak is preparing to announce a wide-ranging package of tax and spending measures to kickstart Britain’s economic recovery from the coronavirus lockdown.
Designed to cushion the blow from rising unemployment and to help businesses back to their feet, the summer economic update on Wednesday comes as Britain grapples with the worst recession in living memory.
Here are the key announcements to look out for:
Global report: WHO says 'evidence emerging' of airborne coronavirus spread
The World Health Organization has acknowledged new evidence that the coronavirus spreads more widely in the air than it had previously suggested, as the Trump administration gave official notification of its withdrawal from the group.
A day after a group of scientists said the global body was underplaying the risk of airborne transmission between people, a senior WHO official said there was “evidence emerging” of airborne transmission of the coronavirus, but that it was not definitive.
Speaking at a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday, Benedetta Allegranzi, the WHO’s technical lead for infection prevention and control, said: “...The possibility of airborne transmission in public settings – especially in very specific conditions, crowded, closed, poorly ventilated settings that have been described, cannot be ruled out.
‘Brief shining of the light’: Japan’s fireflies dance - and mate - in isolation amid Covid-19
As the sun sets in the Japanese town of Tatsuno, thousands of fireflies begin glowing, producing a spectacle that usually draws crowds of delighted visitors.
But this year, the dance of the incandescent insects is being performed without spectators, after coronavirus prevention measures forced organisers of a popular firefly festival to cancel the event.
The decision may have disappointed fans of the bugs, but it provides an unusually serene atmosphere as the insects blink on and off, appearing to dance through the black night air.
Updated
Australia to consider limiting returning residents, PM Morrison says
Australia’s coronavirus emergency cabinet will consider limiting the number of its citizens and residents returning home from overseas, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said on Wednesday.
The prime minister added there were no plans to reimpose restrictions across the country, after Victoria, the country’s second-most populous state, enforced stay-at-home rules in metropolitan Melbourne and one regional area due to a spike in infections.
Back in the Australian state of Victoria, year 11 and 12 students and year 10 students doing Victorian Certificate of Education subjects will return to classrooms next week despite the state’s chief health officer suggesting student to student transmission among older teens is responsible for a massive cluster at Al-Taqwa College.
The large primary and high school in Melbourne’s west was originally closed on 29 June when a member of the school community tested positive.
As the number of infections linked to the school began to grow, all 2,000 students and 300 staff members were ordered to isolate and be tested last Friday. This cluster quickly ballooned to 90 cases by Tuesday to become the state’s second largest outbreak behind that at Cedar Meats.
Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 6,258 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 895 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 268,008 cases and 32,014 deaths.
The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
New Zealand: man with Covid-19 absconds from quarantine for supermarket 'dash'
The Guardian’s Eleanor Ainge Roy reports from Queenstown with Charlotte Graham-McLay in Auckland:
Here’s the full story on a man in compulsory isolation in New Zealand who has absconded from a quarantine hotel to make a late-night “spur-of-the-moment” dash to the supermarket – before testing positive for Covid-19 the following day:
About 30,000 people have passed through quarantine hotels in Auckland since New Zealand closed its borders but in recent weeks a number of guests have made bids for freedom.
Over the weekend a woman leapt over from a hedge to escape her two-week quarantine. Later she got lost and asked a passing policeman for directions back to her hotel.
The latest case saw a 32-year-old man leave Auckland’s Stamford Plaza hotel, bypass security guards and walk to a local Countdown supermarket. The man had been smoking in a fenced area when he escaped and was apparently mistaken for a contractor by security staff, said Air Commodore Darryn Webb, who is in charge of managed isolation and quarantine.
“Security attempted to follow the man but were unsuccessful in locating him,” Webb said.
“Police were called immediately, and enquiries were underway to locate the man including reviewing CCTV footage and undertaking substantial area searches before he returned to the facility where he was then interviewed by police.”
Webb said the man would be charged with breaking newly introduced quarantine legislation, while the supermarket he visited had been closed.
The Netherlands will be at the centre of upcoming talks over European spending on the coronavirus crisis, driven by a mix of traditional Calvinist frugality and political reality, experts say.
As part of the “frugal four” along with Austria, Denmark and Sweden, the Dutch have enraged many in the EU by putting the brakes on a €750bn (US$850bn) rescue package for the worst-hit countries.
Over the past decade the Netherlands has graduated from Germany’s thrifty henchman to the loudest voice among northern European penny-pinchers fighting supposed southern profligacy.
The key role played by the Dutch is underscored by leaders lining up to meet Prime Minister Mark Rutte to break the impasse and reach a deal at a crucial EU summit next week.
The Dutch position that has been harshly criticised has deep cultural and historical roots, analysts say.
“It really has to do with our cultural background. We’re a nation of preachers and salesmen, as they always say,” said Jos Versteeg, an analyst at Amsterdam-based InsingerGilissen private bank.
“In the north it has all to do with Calvinism and Protestantism - live a sober life, don’t show your wealth. In the south (of Europe) there is a different culture,” he told AFP.
Victoria reports 134 new coronavirus cases as NSW warns of border region restrictions
The full story on the latest from the Australian state of Victoria now:
Victoria has recorded 134 new cases of Covid-19, with the source of 123 still under investigation, as state police launched a renewed focus on ensuring those who breach public health orders face consequences.
After the New South Wales-Victoria border closed at midnight on Tuesday, the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, warned the risk of contagion spreading into her state was “very high” and said even tougher border restrictions might be implemented targeting those living in border communities such as Albury.
Berejiklian said people living in towns near the border, such as Wagga, should not visit places closer to Victoria, and asked people in border towns not to move outside them unless “absolutely necessary”.
The Victorian police commissioner, Shane Patton, said on Wednesday morning police would dramatically increase their presence in and around metropolitan Melbourne, which will be under lockdown for six weeks from midnight. Police would focus on 32 local government areas under stage-three restrictions, which mean people can leave their homes only for exercise, work and school, groceries, and essential services such as childcare and healthcare.
The dollar held onto gains on Wednesday as a resurgence of the coronavirus in the United States and the return of lockdowns in some countries boosted safe-haven demand for the US currency, Reuters reports.
Risk sentiment was also undermined after Federal Reserve officials expressed concern that rising coronavirus cases could harm economic growth just as stimulus measures start to expire.
The yuan fell slightly against the dollar, halting a two-day rally, after the Chinese central bank’s daily midpoint for the currency was set at a weaker than expected level.
Other Asian currencies straddled narrow ranges as a resurgence of coronavirus cases threatened a return of lockdown restrictions, leaving investors fretting about the mounting economic costs of the pandemic.
“The mood changes day by day, but the dollar looks to be supported for now as investors turn more cautious about the virus,” said Yukio Ishizuki, foreign exchange strategist at Daiwa Securities.
- The dollar traded at 107.67 yen in Asia on Wednesday following a 0.3% gain on Tuesday.
- Against the euro, the dollar was quoted at $1.1274, also holding to a 0.3% gain from the previous session.
- The greenback bought 0.9429 Swiss franc, little changed on the day.
- Sterling changed hands at $1.2549 and was quoted at 89.86 pence per euro.
The pound was near three-week highs against both the greenback and the common currency after British Prime Minister Boris Johnson reiterated his commitment to reaching an early trade deal with the European Union.
Britain to reveal post-coronavirus recovery plan
Britain will Wednesday unveil a mini-budget to kickstart the UK economy, hoping costly infrastructure investment will help build its way out of the crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak, AFP reports.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has vowed to “build, build, build” in an “infrastructure revolution” for schools, affordable housing, road maintenance and public transport.
Finance minister Rishi Sunak is due to deliver his spending plans at 1130 GMT, having already flagged £3 billion (US$3.7 billion, €3.3bn) of green investment.
The chancellor of the exchequer will offer £2 billion ($2.5bn, €2.2bn) in grants for households to insulate homes and make them more energy efficient. A further £1 billion ($1.25bn, €1bn) is being provided for public sector buildings, including hospitals.
Britain has had more than 44,000 deaths in the outbreak - the highest in Europe - heaping pressure on the government for its handling of the crisis.
New Zealand opposition MP who leaked details of Covid-19 patients steps down
Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian:
An opposition MP in New Zealand has announced he will not stand at September’s election after he confessed to leaking private details about all of the country’s active Covid-19 cases to several news outlets.
The leak by Hamish Walker, a member of parliament for the centre-right National party, as well as the revelations that the personal information had in turn been provided to him by a former National party president, dealt a blow to an opposition trying to make a comeback in the polls ahead of September’s election against the widely popular prime minister Jacinda Ardern.
“I sincerely apologise for my actions. I will be making no further comment,” Walker said in a written statement on Wednesday, which was sent to news outlets at the same time members of his party’s board were due to meet about his future.
Japanese Economy Minister Yasutoshi Nishimura reiterated on Wednesday there is no need to declare a new state of emergency for the coronavirus despite rising infections, as serious cases remained low and there was no strain on the medical system.
But, he noted an increase in the number of untraceable cases and cases among older people, saying: “It is necessary to respond with a sense of crisis.”
New Zealand man left isolation facility to visit supermarket, tested positive next day
Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian:
New Zealand’s government has revealed that a man who has tested positive for Covid-19 left his managed isolation facility – by escaping through a temporary fence – in order to visit a supermarket.
All of the country’s known cases of the coronavirus are returning travellers who are spending quarantine in government-run isolation facilities. There have been no diagnosed cases of community transmission since the last known patient recovered in early June.
The man, aged in his 30s, had recently returned from India. He absconded from his managed quarantine hotel – the Stamford Plaza in central Auckland – to visit a supermarket.
He was missing from quarantine for just over an hour on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning he tested positive to Covid-19.
Officials are tracing his movements, and the supermarket he visited has been closed.
Chris Hipkins, the health minister, said the “acts of selfishness” that the man and another earlier escapee had committed were unacceptable and would be prosecuted. They face hefty fines or up to six months in jail.
Updated
California reports more than 10,000 cases
California reported more than 10,000 coronavirus cases on Tuesday, a record rise for a single day that also surpassed the number of contact tracers recently trained by the state to detect and prevent potential outbreaks, Reuters reports.
California is one of several US states that have reported surging numbers of new Covid-19 infections over the past week, raising questions about how US President Donald Trump has handled the crisis and impeding state plans to lift lockdowns.
The 10,201 new cases reported on Tuesday took the total number of cases in California since the start of the pandemic to nearly 284,00. In June, California infections more than doubled with over 117,000 new cases.
Only three other US states have reported more than 10,000 cases in a day. Florida reported 11,458 new cases on July 4 and Texas reported 10,028 on Tuesday.
New York recorded 12,847 new infections on 10 April, three weeks after the state implemented a strict lockdown that closed most businesses. Once the epicenter of the US epidemic, New York saw cases rise by about 6% in June - the lowest rate in the entire country.
On Tuesday in Brazil, as President Jair Bolsonaro announced he had tested positive for coronavirus, he took off his mask in front of journalists and said: “Just look at my face. I’m well, fine, thank God … Thanks to all those who have been praying for me … and to those who criticise me, no problem, carry on criticising as much as you like.”
VIDEO: Brazil's Bolsonaro removes face mask after testing positive for virus.
— AFP news agency (@AFP) July 8, 2020
Bolsonaro removes his face mask while talking to the media in Brasilia's Alvorada Palace, after announcing that he tested positive for COVID-19https://t.co/7wuacxt67T pic.twitter.com/hjkA79R3nb
Australian state of Victoria records 134 new Covid-19 cases
The premier of the beleaguered Australian state of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, has announced 134 new cases in the state, down from yersterday’s record of 191.
Andrews says only 11 of the new Covid-19 cases are connected to known outbreaks.
There are now 75 cases in the locked-down towers.
US coronavirus task force response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said that the United States and other countries could have had a stronger initial response to Covid-19 if China had been more forthcoming about key features of the virus, Reuters reports.
At a panel held by the Atlantic Council, a US think tank, Birx said the United States would have been more focused on identifying Covid-19 patients without symptoms if China has shared information about the frequency with which these patients, particularly young people, are asymptomatic.
“I have to say if we had known about the level of asymptomatic spread, we would have all looked at this differently,” Birx said at the panel.
“That’s usually the initial countries’ responsibility ... and I think that did delay across the board our ability to really see or look for this.”
Birx said that public health officials had originally assumed that only 15 to 20% of Covid-19 patients are asymptomatic when in fact that number is at least 40%.
“We were looking for people with symptoms. We should have looked for anyone who would have been exposed,” she said.
Joe Biden says he would return the US to the WHO if elected
Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger for the presidency, said he would return the US to the WHO once elected.
In a tweet, Biden wrote, “Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as President, I will rejoin the @WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage.”
Americans are safer when America is engaged in strengthening global health. On my first day as President, I will rejoin the @WHO and restore our leadership on the world stage. https://t.co/8uazVIgPZB
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 7, 2020
Coronavirus in the Pacific: weekly briefing
Dan McGarry reports for the Guardian from Port Vila with Tess Newton Cain:
The total number of cases of Covid-19 infection listed by the World Health Organisation for the region stands at 426, an increase of 44 since last week. The main contributor to this rise is the increase in infections in Guam.
The factors that make the Pacific resistant to infection – remoteness, scattered populations and the high cost of travel and transportation – are the very same elements driving the region deeper into economic distress.
These factors have been holding back development gains for decades. And even if it never lands on their shores, Covid-19 will further constrain livelihoods and development opportunities in Pacific nations for years.
Fiji and Papua New Guinea, with their relatively sizeable populations and economies, are the most visibly affected.
One NGO estimates that half of all Fijians are facing “severe” financial distress. A major resort in Fiji has announced that nearly 500 staff will be made redundant as of next month.
The reserve bank has predicted a contraction of 21.7% in the country’s economy, driven largely by the drop-off in tourist arrivals as a result of Covid-19 impacts.
Podcast: How Melbourne ended up under a second Covid-19 lockdown?
For weeks now the government in the Australian state of Victoria has been desperately trying to get the coronavirus outbreak under control. It locked down postcodes, public housing towers and finally Melbourne itself. In this episode of Full Story, reporter Melissa Davey explains how it all unfolded:
Texas reports more than 10,000 cases
Texas surpassed 10,000 new coronavirus cases in a single day Tuesday for the first time, crossing a sobering milestone rarely seen since the pandemic first hit the US in March, AP reports.
The record high of 10,028 new cases in Texas served as another alarming new measure of the swift resurgence of Covid-19 nationwide and the failures of the country’s response.
Republican Governor Greg Abbott of Texas aggressively began one of Americas fastest re-openings in May but has begun reversing course in recent weeks, ordering bars closed and mandating face coverings.
New York and Florida are the only other states to record more than 10,000 new cases in a single day. New York hit that grim total back in April, when New York City hospitals were overwhelmed and hundreds of people were dying every day. Florida topped 10,000 confirmed cases last week.
The record mark in Texas partly reflects a lag in testing results from the Fourth of July weekend, when newly reported cases were far below what Texas has seen in recent weeks. But Abbott said the numbers should still be an alarm bell for everybody who is skeptical about whether the virus is a threat.
“We have rapid spread of Covid-19 in the state of Texas right now,” Abbott told San Antonio television station KENS.
Texas surged past 8,000 statewide hospitalizations for the first time over the long holiday weekend a more than quadruple increase on the past month. On Tuesday, the number of hospitalizations soared past 9,000. Texas also set a new high for deaths in a single day with 60.
Updated
The UK government does not have a clear strategy to acquire and distribute the equipment needed to protect clinical and care workers in a second wave of coronavirus, parliament’s spending watchdog has warned.
The public accounts committee on Wednesday insisted that ministers should return after the summer with a detailed explanation of how they plan to stock the NHS and care sector with gowns, masks, eye protection and gloves.
MPs on the cross-party committee said they were “extremely concerned” by shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic and said the government was still developing plans for replenishing current stocks if there was a further outbreak.
Brazil records 1,312 new Covid-19 deaths as Bolsonaro tests positive
On the day Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, announced he had tested positive for coronavirus the South American country has recorded another 1,312 deaths and more than 48,000 new cases.
According to a coalition of Brazilian news outlets keeping an independent tally, that takes Brazil’s total death toll to nearly 67,000, the second highest number in the world.
Brazil has now registered 1.67 million confirmed cases, including that of Brazil’s far-right leader who is facing domestic and international condemnation for his handling of the crisis.
Earlier in the day, as Bolsonaro announced he had tested positive, he took off his mask in front of journalists and said: “Just look at my face. I’m well, fine, thank God … Thanks to all those who have been praying for me … and to those who criticise me, no problem, carry on criticising as much as you like.”
Marcelo Freixo, a left-wing politician from Rio, has since denounced Bolsonaro to the attorney general for alleged crimes against public health, for putting the journalists who were present at his announcement at risk.
Updated
US officially notifies World Health Organization of its withdrawal
The US has formally notified the World Health Organization of its withdrawal, despite widespread criticism and an almost complete lack of international support for the move in the midst of a pandemic.
Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw in May, accusing the WHO, without evidence, of withholding information, and of being too close to China. The letter confirming the move was delivered to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, officials confirmed on Tuesday.
A WHO official said: “We have received reports that the US has submitted formal notification to the UN secretary general that it is withdrawing from WHO effective 6 July 2021.”
Trump’s Democratic challenger for the presidency, Joe Biden, said he would return the US to the WHO before the year-long process of withdrawal was complete.
WHO acknowledges 'evidence emerging' of airborne spread of Covid-19
The World Health Organization on Tuesday acknowledged “evidence emerging” of the airborne spread of the novel coronavirus, after a group of scientists urged the global body to update its guidance on how the respiratory disease passes between people.
“We have been talking about the possibility of airborne transmission and aerosol transmission as one of the modes of transmission of Covid-19,” Maria Van Kerkhove, technical lead on the COVID-19 pandemic at the WHO, told a news briefing.
The WHO has previously said the virus that causes the COVID-19 respiratory disease spreads primarily through small droplets expelled from the nose and mouth of an infected person that quickly sink to the ground.
But in an open letter to the Geneva-based agency, published on Monday in the Clinical Infectious Diseases journal, 239 scientists in 32 countries outlined evidence that they say shows floating virus particles can infect people who breathe them in.
Because those smaller exhaled particles can linger in the air, the scientists in the group had been urging WHO to update its guidance.
“We wanted them to acknowledge the evidence,” said Jose Jimenez, a chemist at the University of Colorado who signed the paper.
“This is definitely not an attack on the WHO. It’s a scientific debate, but we felt we needed to go public because they were refusing to hear the evidence after many conversations with them,” he said in a telephone interview.
Summary
Welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan. As always, you can get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan or email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com. Tips, news, oaths of fealty and suggestions all welcome.
Washington has formally begun the process of leaving the World Health Organization. The US will withdraw on 6 July 2021 under a 1948 joint resolution of the US Congress, which also obliges Washington to pay financial support. Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger for the presidency, said he would return the US to the WHO once elected.
At the same time, the WHO emergencies chief says the coronavirus is accelerating globally. Noting the marked increase in the number of confirmed cases being reported in the past five or six weeks, he warned that a spike in deaths could be soon to follow.
“In April and May, we were dealing with 100,000 cases a day,” said Dr. Michael Ryan during a Tuesday press briefing. “Today we’re dealing with 200,000 a day.”
- There are 11.7m confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, according to researchers at Johns Hopkins University, and known 540,582 deaths.
- Washington has formally begun the process of leaving the World Health Organization. The US will withdraw on 6 July 2021 under a 1948 joint resolution of the US Congress, which also obliges Washington to pay financial support. Joe Biden, Trump’s Democratic challenger for the presidency, said he would return the US to the WHO once elected.
- The WHO says coronavirus cases are increasing by 200,000 a day, doubling from April and May. The WHO emergencies chief said that the number of Covid-19 deaths appeared to be stable for the moment, but he cautioned that there is often a lag time between when confirmed cases increase and when deaths are reported due to the time it takes for the coronavirus to run its course in patients.
- The World Health Organization on Tuesday acknowledged “evidence emerging” of the airborne spread of the coronavirus, after a group of scientists urged the global body to update its guidance on how the respiratory disease passes between people.
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Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro has tested positive for Covid-19. He said he began feeling ill on Sunday and has been taking hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malarial drug with unproven effectiveness against Covid-19.
- Israel’s public health director has quit amid a spike in new coronavirus cases, saying the country had been too hasty to reopen its economy and had lost its way in dealing with the pandemic. Siegal Sadetzki, an epidemiologist, announced her resignation a day after prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu reimposed a series of restrictions, including the closure of bars, gyms and event halls.
- More than 200,000 people in Europe have died from coronavirus, according to analysis from the news agency AFP.
- Italy’s health minister has proposed “sectioning” people who refuse hospital treatment for Covid-19 and has suspended flights from Bangladesh.
- The Australian city of Melbourne is to re-enter Stage 3 lockdown after a record increase in cases. Victorian state premier Daniel Andrews said there was “simply no alternative” to reimposing stay at home restrictions in Australia’s second-biggest city.
- A New Zealand MP has confessed leaking private details of Covid-19 cases to reporters. Hamish Walker, an opposition politician from the centre-right National party, said he was the source of a list of private information about 18 active cases in the country.
