This blog is now closed. Our coverage continues here.
Summary
Here the latest updates at a glance:
- Britain’s health secretary Matt Hancock will announce this week that Public Health England (PHE) will be scrapped and replaced by a new body.
- The US Food and Drug Administration on Saturday granted emergency use authorisation for Yale School of Public Health’s saliva test to detect Covid-19, after a trial on National Basketball Association players and staff.
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Algeria started reopening its mosques, cafes, beaches and parks on Saturday for the first time in five months, gradually relaxing one of the world’s longer virus confinement periods.
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Greek authorities have announced 230 new coronavirus cases over the past day, 27 from international arrivals.
- South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday that all indications were that South Africa had reached the peak of Covid-19 infections, as he announced a sweeping removal of lockdown restrictions on the economy.
- Students in Saudi Arabian public schools will be educated via distance learning for the first seven weeks of the new school year.
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Malta posted its highest ever daily-on-day rise in coronavirus infections.
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Turkey confirmed 1,256 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the highest daily rise in infections since June.
- The French health ministry on Saturday reported 3,310 new coronavirus infections in France over the past 24 hours, setting a new post-lockdown high for the fourth day in a row and taking the country’s cumulative cases to 215,521. France is to propose that masks be worn in shared workspaces.
- Ireland reported a “deeply concerning” 200 new Covid-19 cases arising from multiple clusters across the country on Saturday, the highest daily amount since the beginning of May.
- The chairman of Ireland’s tourism authority has resigned after defying government guidance to avoid all non-essential travel by going on holiday to Italy.
- The United Kingdom has recorded 1,012 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, the fifth day in a row more than 1,000 infections have been reported in daily figures.
That’s all from me from tonight, thanks so much for reading and writing in, as always. My colleagues in Australia will take over shortly.
The annual light display honouring victims of the 9/11 terror attacks is back on, US officials announced on Saturday, saying New York health officials will supervise this year’s tribute to ensure workers’ safety amid concerns related to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This year it is especially important that we all appreciate and commemorate 9/11, the lives lost and the heroism displayed as New Yorkers are once again called upon to face a common enemy,” governor Andrew Cuomo said in a statement.
The announcement came days after the National September 11 Memorial & Museum cancelled the Tribute in Light over concerns the coronavirus might spread among crews creating twin columns of light to represent the World Trade Center in the Manhattan sky.
Alice Greenwald, president and CEO of the 9/11 Memorial & Museum, thanked former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Cuomo and the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation for their assistance in offsetting the increased costs associated with the health and safety considerations around the tribute this year.
“This year, its message of hope, endurance and resilience are more important than ever,” Greenwald said in a statement.
The Tunnel to Towers Foundation recently decided to hold an alternative 9/11 Never Forget ceremony after the National September 11 Memorial & Museum announced family members will not read the names of the nearly 3,000 victims this year, because of the pandemic.
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France is to propose that masks be worn in shared workspaces as the country grapples with a rebound in coronavirus cases that rose again in the past 24 hours to over 3,000.
Employment minister Elisabeth Borne said she would propose on Tuesday at talks with employer and union representatives that masks be compulsory in collective workspaces.
“A theme that appears in all scientific opinions is the value of wearing them [masks] when there are several people in a confined space,” Borne said in an interview with French newspaper Le Journal du Dimanche.
Doctors have increasingly called for masks to be required in the workplace while the HCSP, a body advising the government on health policy, issued a recommendation calling for masks to be compulsory in all common indoor spaces.
Mexico added back 52,455 jobs in August, president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Saturday, hailing the news as a sign of recovery after the country lost more than 1 million jobs in the formal economy due to the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is a good indicator ... We’re going to move ahead in spite of everything because we’re working in a professional manner,” he said in a video on Twitter, citing data from the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) on employees registered with the institute.
IMSS said last week that 3,907 jobs were lost in July due to the pandemic, adding to 1.1 million jobs lost in the country between March and June, according to Reuters.
Mexico ranks third worldwide for most coronavirus fatalities, with a death toll of 55,908, and its economy is expected to shrink this year by as much as 10% or more.
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Sir Keir Starmer has warned Boris Johnson it is his duty to ensure schools in England reopen in September as planned.
Writing in the Mail on Sunday, the Labour leader said it was essential for the wellbeing and life chances of children that they were able to return to normal education next month.
“So, let me send a very clear message to the prime minister: I don’t just want all children back at school next month, I expect them back at school. No ifs, no buts, no equivocation,” he said.
“Let me be equally clear: It is the prime minister’s responsibility to guarantee children get the education they need and the benefit of being back with their teachers and classmates.
“My offer to help the government reopen schools still stands, but responsibility for making it happen lies squarely at the door of Number 10.”
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Britain’s health secretary Matt Hancock will announce this week that Public Health England (PHE) will be scrapped and replaced by a new body specifically designed to protect England against a pandemic by early next month, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.
Hancock will announce a merger of the pandemic response work of PHE with NHS test and trace into a new body, called the National Institute for Health Protection, the newspaper said.
The paper said the new body will become “effective” next month, although it will take until next spring to complete.
The Conservative peer and former TalkTalk telecoms boss Baroness Harding, who currently heads Test and Trace, is being tipped to lead the organisation, the paper said.
It quoted a senior minister as saying: “We want to bring together the science and the scale in one new body so we can do all we can to stop a second coronavirus spike this autumn.”
The reported move follows repeated reports over recent months that ministers have been unhappy and frustrated with PHE’s response to the coronavirus crisis.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Public Health England have played an integral role in our national response to this unprecedented global pandemic.
“We have always been clear that we must learn the right lessons from this crisis to ensure that we are in the strongest possible position, both as we continue to deal with Covid-19 and to respond to any future public health threat.”
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The Emirati APEX National Investment company signed a “strategic commercial agreement” with Israel’s Tera Group to cooperate on research and development related to Covid-19, including a testing device.
The deal “is considered the first business to inaugurate trade, economy and effective partnerships between the Emirati and Israeli business sectors, for the benefit of serving humanity by strengthening research and studies on the Novel Coronavirus,” the UAE’s state news agency WAM said late on Saturday, quoting APEX’s chairman Khalifa Yousef Khoury.
The agreement was signed at a press conference in Abu Dhabi, coming soon after Israel and the UAE announced an agreement on Thursday that will lead to a full normalisation of diplomatic relations between the two states.
Mexico will need up to 200 million coronavirus vaccine doses, according to a senior government official.
The immunisation of its 120 million inhabitants could start as early as April if clinical trials and regulatory approvals for pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca go as planned, Reuters reports.
In partnership with the governments of Mexico and Argentina, AstraZeneca initially plans to produce 150 million doses in early 2021 and eventually make at least 400 million doses for distribution throughout Latin America.
AstraZeneca is among those working on Covid-19 vaccine candidates around the world.
Mexico’s government has also said it is considering other options for bringing a vaccine quickly to its population, the second-largest in Latin America.
AstraZeneca will be able to produce between 30 and 35 million vaccines per month, Martha Delgado, a Mexican deputy foreign minister, told Reuters in an interview on Friday.
The vaccine could require two doses to be effective, Delgado said.
“If we need 200 million, we’re going to be vaccinating for a long time,” Delgado added.
Last-stage so-called Phase III trials are expected to conclude by November or December, after which AstraZeneca will seek government approvals if the vaccine is found to be safe and effective.
If that goes smoothly, Delgado estimated the first vaccines in Mexico could be administered in April.
Mexico’s death toll of 55,908 stands as the world’s third highest behind the US and Brazil. Latin America’s 6 million cases and more than 237,000 deaths make it the world’s hardest-hit region.
To ensure all Mexicans have access to a vaccine, the government of president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador is in talks with other pharmaceutical laboratories in different stages of developing a vaccine.
“Astra’s production isn’t going to be enough for Mexico. We need to supplement that with a couple of more vaccines,” Delgado said.
Mexico’s government has completed memorandums of understanding with French drugmaker Sanofi, Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen unit, and Chinese companies CanSino Biologics Inc and Walvax Biotechnology Co Ltd.
CanSino and Walvax are interested in producing a vaccine in Mexico for delivery to the Latin American market.
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FDA approves use of new cheaper saliva Covid test
The US Food and Drug Administration on Saturday granted emergency use authorisation for Yale School of Public Health’s saliva test to detect Covid-19, after a trial on National Basketball Association players and staff.
SalivaDirect, the fifth saliva test approved by the FDA for the disease, requires no swab or collection device and uses spit from people suspected of having the coronavirus, the agency said.
FDA commissioner Stephen Hahn called the test “groundbreaking” in its efficiency and in being unaffected by crucial component shortages.
SalivaDirect is seen as a cheap, simpler and less invasive testing method that requires no extraction of nucleic acid and can use several readily available reagents.
The NBA has used the test in a programme involving asymptomatic players, coaches and staff from various teams after partnering with Yale in June, the school said in a separate statement.
“We simplified the test so that it only costs a couple of dollars for reagents, and we expect that labs will only charge about $10 per sample,” said Nathan Grubaugh, assistant professor at Yale School of Public Health.
The FDA said the test could lower the risk to healthcare workers as the sample is self-collected, under the observation of a healthcare professional.
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Algeria started reopening its mosques, cafes, beaches and parks on Saturday for the first time in five months, gradually relaxing one of the world’s longer virus confinement periods.
Curfews remain in place in more than half the country, and masks are required outdoors as Algeria tries to keep virus infections down, the Associated Press reports.
But authorities decided to start reopening public places, saying the virus infection rate is believed to have stabilised.
Crowds packed beaches on Saturday in the capital, Algiers, celebrating the opportunity to swim in the Mediterranean Sea during the August heat.
Restaurants were also allowed to reopen, and mosques that can hold more than 1,000 people and ensure social distancing measures.
However, mosques remain closed to all women, children and the elderly until further notice, and the main weekly prayers on Friday will remain banned to limit crowds.
Mosque-goers must wear masks and bring their own prayer mats.
This reopening will depend entirely on the discipline of each person to respect protection measures, said the minister for religious affairs, Mohamed Belmahdi, who was among those attending the first services on Saturday at Khaled Ibn El Walid mosque in the resort town of Heuraoua, east of Algiers.
He warned that authorities would close mosques again if Algerians show even a slight indifference toward preventive measures.
“The health of citizens comes before faith,” he said.
Algeria has reported more than 37,000 virus infections and 1,350 deaths as of Friday, the third-highest death rate reported in Africa after South Africa and Egypt.
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Greek authorities have announced 230 new coronavirus cases over the past day, 27 from international arrivals, the daily I Kathimerini reported.
There were also 3 new deaths.
Total Covid-19 cases in Greece now stand at 6,858 with 226 deaths.
There are 23 patients on ventilators, while 136 have recovered after having been treated in intensive care units.
The sharp rise in new daily cases in August, and local outbreaks coinciding with the late opening of the tourist season after two months of strict lockdown, have led the government to impose new social distancing measures and restrictions.
From Monday, bars, cafes and restaurants in many parts of the country, including the capital Athens, will have to close at midnight and not reopen before 7am.
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South African president Cyril Ramaphosa said on Saturday that all indications were that South Africa had reached the peak of Covid-19 infections, as he announced a sweeping removal of lockdown restrictions on the economy.
In a televised address, Ramaphosa said the government would end the ban on alcohol and tobacco, allow restaurants and taverns to return to normal business, subject to strict hygiene regulations, and remove the ban on travel between provinces.
“All indications are that South Africa has reached the peak and moved beyond the inflection point of the curve,” Ramaphosa said, adding that the cabinet had decided to move to lower, “level two” restrictions from midnight on Monday.
“The move to level two means that we can remove nearly all of the restrictions on the resumption of economic activity across most industries,” he said.
He said a fall in the infection rates, as well as people recovering, were “significantly reducing the pressure on our health facilities”, but he cautioned that cases could easily surge if people fail to maintain vigilance.
Restrictions on international travel remained in place, he said.
South Africa has more than half a million cases, but the rate of infections has declined over the past two weeks.
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One person who tested positive for coronavirus in Wales has died, bringing the country’s total number of deaths since the beginning of the pandemic to 1,587.
Public Health Wales said the total number of cases in the country increased by 27, bringing the revised total of confirmed cases to 17,543.
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Students in Saudi Arabian public schools will be educated via distance learning for the first seven weeks of the new school year, the country’s minister of education said on Saturday, as a precaution against the spread of coronavirus.
During that time, the situation for the remainder of the school year will be evaluated, Hamad bin Mohammed Al Shaikh said in remarks carried on the state-run al-Ekhbariya TV channel, according to Reuters.
University and technical schools will be online for theory-based curriculums and in person for practical curriculums, he added.
Saudi Arabia has seen more than 297,000 cases of coronavirus.
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Malta records record daily increase in new infections
Malta posted its highest ever one-day rise in coronavirus cases on Saturday, as the small Mediterranean island nation faces a recent uptick in infections due to more summer gatherings.
Health authorities said they recorded 72 new Covid-19 infections between Friday and Saturday, a record since the first case was identified in the country on 7 March.
New infections have been increasing significantly in Malta in the past three weeks following a period in mid-July when the country enjoyed eight consecutive days with no new cases, AFP reports.
As of the latest update, the nation of nearly half a million people had 557 current cases of coronavirus for a total of 1,348 infections.
Nine people have died.
The Maltese government recently introduced some restrictions on mass events and gatherings, but has thus far steered clear of reimplementing the more stringent lockdown measures it imposed in March and gradually lifted from May.
Two new testing hubs have also been opened by health authorities in an effort to deal with a backlog of appointments for swab tests.
Twelve European countries have removed Malta from their safe travel list, with quarantine – and in some cases a coronavirus test – required for those who return to most of these countries from Malta.
Many of the new infections identified in recent weeks in neighbouring Italy have been due to young summer partygoers returning home after a holiday in Malta.
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Turkey reports highest increase in new cases since June
Turkey confirmed 1,256 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the highest daily rise in infections since June, Sky reports.
Turkey recorded 21 Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, health minister Fahrettin Koca said on Twitter on Saturday.
The country has seen cases edge higher in recent weeks and has now recorded a total of 278,117, with 5,955 deaths.
Turkey lifted a partial lockdown on 1 June and plans to re-open schools next month.
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France records over 3,300 new cases in one day
The French health ministry on Saturday reported 3,310 new coronavirus infections in France over the past 24 hours, setting a new post-lockdown high for the fourth day in a row and taking the country’s cumulative cases to 215,521.
A total of 252 clusters were being investigated, up 17 compared with 24 hours earlier, the ministry said in a website update.
France said on Saturday evening that 4,857 people are in hospital with Covid-19, including 376 people in intensive care units.
This week’s upswing has taken the seven-day moving average of new infections above the 2,000 threshold for the first time since 20 April, when France was in the middle of one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns.
The resurgence prompted Britain to impose a 14-day quarantine for people arriving from France, fuelling a rush by British travellers to return home before an early Saturday deadline.
A relatively high incidence in Paris also led the authorities to expand zones in the capital where wearing a mask is mandatory outdoors.
But doctors are increasingly calling for masks to be required in the workplace as they see people mingling in confined spaces as a bigger risk factor, Reuters reports.
The HCSP, a body advising the government on health policy, issued a recommendation calling for masks to be compulsory in all common indoor spaces.
The government last month made wearing a mask obligatory in shops but not in other businesses.
The number of people in hospital has trended downwards in recent weeks even as new Covid-19 cases have risen, with experts pointing to the spread of the virus among younger people.
However, the latest daily figures showed a slight rise in the number of hospital patients, at 4,857 against 4,828 a day earlier, as well as a rise in intensive care patients to 376 from 367.
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Ireland reports highest daily rise in infections since May
Ireland reported 200 new Covid-19 cases arising from multiple clusters across the country on Saturday, the highest daily amount since the beginning of May. The country’s chief medical officer described this as “deeply concerning”.
Ireland has reopened its economy at a slower pace than most European Union countries but that did not stop a rise in cases over the last two weeks that led to the first localised reimposition of some restrictions last week.
“We now have multiple clusters with secondary spread of disease and rising numbers of cases in many parts of the country. This is deeply concerning. NPHET [Ireland’s public health team] will monitor this extremely closely over the coming days,” Ronan Glynn said in a statement.
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Berlin’s brothels were allowed to reopen last week after months of closure due to coronavirus restrictions - but full-on sex is still off-limits.
Instead, clients looking for sexual healing in the German capital will have to make do with erotic massages until regulations are further relaxed in September.
And it’s not just the clients who have been left frustrated by the partial easing of regulations.
Sex work had been banned in Berlin since mid-March as part of efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus, AFP reports.
In July, several dozen prostitutes armed with inflatable sex dolls staged a protest outside the Bundesrat upper house of parliament in Berlin, complaining that continued restrictions were preventing them from making a living and pushing their trade underground.
Prostitution is legal and regulated in Germany, with the country’s 40,000 registered sex workers entitled to employment contracts and social security benefits.
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Anyone can get a coronavirus test at the CentroMed clinic in San Antonio, Texas, but on a recent day, the drive-thru was empty, the Associated Press reports.
With hundreds of deaths reported each day, students returning to class, and football teams charging ahead with plans to play, Texas’s leaders who have grappled with testing shortages for much of the pandemic are now facing the opposite problem: not enough takers.
“We’re not having enough people step forward,” Republican governor Greg Abbott said.
The number of coronavirus tests being done each day in Texas has dropped by the thousands in August, mirroring nationwide trends that have seen daily testing averages in the US fall nearly 9% since the end of July, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
The dropoff comes as the US has surpassed 5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and is closing in on 170,000 deaths.
It threatens to put the US even further behind other countries that have better managed the pandemic, in part through more aggressive testing.
The trend worries health experts: Texas embarked on one of the fastest reopenings in the country in May, but retreated weeks later in the face of massive outbreaks, ultimately leading Abbott to impose a statewide mask order after previously saying he wouldn’t.
At one point, one overwhelmed hospital on the Texas border was airlifting Covid-19 patients hundreds of miles north in search of open beds, and Houston this month began threatening $250 (£190) fines for not wearing face coverings in an effort to drive down infection numbers.
In recent weeks, things have improved, including a nearly 40% drop in hospitalisations since July’s peak.
But deaths remain high, and doctors in some parts say they’re still stretched.
Texas has been averaging more than 210 reported new deaths a day over the past two weeks, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
On Friday, it reported 313 deaths. Overall, the state has recorded more than 9,600 fatalities.
The rolling average of people who test positive for the virus in Texas is stubbornly elevated at 16%, a figure that itself could be a sign of insufficient testing.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said a positivity rate under 10% is an indicator that a state has robust testing.
Abbott has said that unless Texas gets below that number, bars are likely to stay shut.
Other states in the South clobbered by the virus this summer are also seeing improvements, including Alabama.
Intensive care units remain frustratingly full there, but the average number of new confirmed cases each day has dropped below 1,000, from 1,800 in mid-July.
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Migrant arrivals to Italy increased by nearly 150% over the past year with an overwhelming majority arriving from Tunisia and war-riven Libya, Italy’s interior ministry said on Saturday.
Italy says it has been struggling to deal with daily arrivals of hundreds of migrants to its southern shores, a task further complicated by coronavirus-linked security measures, AFP reports.
With frustration growing among local mayors, the government has chartered massive ferry ships to hold migrants under quarantine and called in the army for help.
From the start of August last year to the end of July this year, 21,618 migrants arrived at Italy’s shores – 148.7% higher than the 8,691 landings a year earlier, according to data presented by interior minister Luciana Lamorgese.
Despite the sharp rise, the number of migrant arrivals is still far below numbers recorded in recent years.
From 2016 to 2017, Italy recorded 182,877 migrant arrivals.
After Italy signed a deal with Libya for its coastguard to prevent migrant departures, the number fell to 42,700 in the 2017-18 period.
Lamorgese said the difficulty was not the number of arrivals but the extra work required by anti-Covid-19 security measures.
“There is a need for a protection system both for the populations receiving the migrants and for the migrants themselves,” she said.
Migrants testing positive for Covid-19 present logistical challenges within the reception centres where they are brought.
“Swabbing is done and, when positive, the person has to be treated while the others have to observe an isolation of 14 days,” Lamorgese said.
Some 41.6% of the migrants who arrived over the past year departed from Tunisia, followed by Libya at 40.5%.
Over a third of those who arrived listed Tunisian as their nationality.
Tunisia is battling high unemployment and political instability, pushing more economic migrants to cross to Italy.
Lamorgese said she planned to make a trip to Tunisia on Monday with foreign minister Luigi Di Maio and two European Union commissioners.
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The chairman of Ireland’s tourism authority has resigned after defying government guidance to avoid all non-essential travel by going on holiday to Italy, my colleague Aaron Walawalkar reports.
Michael Cawley, Ryanair’s former chief operating officer, handed in his resignation on Saturday after details of his Italian excursion were revealed by the Irish Independent.
The Roman Catholic church’s annual Assumption celebrations took place in Lourdes on Saturday with fewer pilgrims than usual making the trip to the south-west of France because of the global health crisis.
For the first time, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State and right-hand man of Pope Francis, presided over the mass at the grotto, delivering a message of “hope” to a “world that knows darkness, fear”, referring in particular to the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.
Nearly 5,000 pilgrims took their place in the Basilica of Saint Pius X, a gigantic underground church as large as two football fields, which can hold five times as many.
The organisers then closed access to the underground basilica, inviting pilgrims to follow on screens outside.
“It’s weird. There aren’t many people this year,” said Michel Clavel, a retired 66-year-old truck driver, who comes every year for the Assumption pilgrimage.
“In general, 15 August is the big crowd. Because of the coronavirus, there are no organised trips for sick people who come [by] train, plane or coach.”
Wearing a mask was compulsory and scrupulously respected.
A few dozen patients, some in wheelchairs, were in the front row but because of the sanitary precautions, the large numbers of people in poor health who normally travel to Lourdes in search of a miraculous cure were absent.
The cave where, according to Catholic tradition, the Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in 1858, is closed to the public, because pilgrims are used to putting their hands on the walls and kissing the stone.
After a two-month closure the sanctuaries of Lourdes have been gradually opening up, but the large contingents of foreign pilgrims are missing and many hotels and souvenir shops remain closed.
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UK records over 1,000 new cases for fifth consecutive day
The United Kingdom has recorded 1,012 new coronavirus infections on Saturday, the fifth day in a row more than 1,000 infections have been reported in daily figures.
Britain has now recorded 317,379 Covid-19 cases.
A further three people were reported to have died after testing positive for coronavirus.
The government also said 41,361 people have died in the UK within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19, as of Saturday.
Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies show there have been 56,800 deaths registered in the UK where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
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Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, criticised “party holidays” on Saturday, as bar owners in Mallorca, Spain, a popular destination for German holidaymakers, feared the news that Germany declared most of the country a coronavirus risk region on Friday would be the death knell for their already-struggling businesses.
“We live in fear here. We don’t know what tomorrow will bring,” said Gelinde from Munich who owns Casa Baviera bar.
“We are not afraid of the virus, but we are afraid of what our livelihood will be like.”
There are currently around 30,000 Germans on holiday with tour operators in Spain’s Balearic islands, the vast majority in Mallorca, plus more independent travellers, the German travel association said.
TUI, the world’s largest tourism company, said it was cancelling all German package holidays to Spain with immediate effect until 24 August, appealing to customers already there to return within seven days.
“If I close I will be unable to reopen again ... I have no help. How are we supposed to move on from this?” said Antonia Gost, owner of La Tapita bar in Palma, in response to TUI’s decision to cancel all holidays to the island, Reuters reports.
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Hello, I’m taking over for the next few hours. As ever, feel free to get in touch with updates relating to the pandemic from wherever you are, you can get me on Twitter at @JedySays or via email.
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Tens of thousands of UK tourists in France made last-ditch bids to return home before the imposition of quarantine restrictions at 4am today.
Tickets for planes, trains and ferries were snapped up by travellers at increased prices as they attempted to beat the deadline.
Governments around the world – including the UK – face a wave of lawsuits from foreign companies who complain that their profits have been hit by the pandemic.
Webinars and presentations shared with clients reveal that leading global law firms anticipate governments around the world will soon face claims over their response to the Covid-19 crisis. The actions are being brought under investor state dispute settlement (ISDS) clauses which are embedded in trade and investment agreements and allow foreign investors and firms to sue other countries’ governments.
The claims are heard in highly secretive ad hoc tribunals before a panel of three judges. Often it is not apparent that a case is being brought until the panel sits.
The law firm Alston & Bird used a recent webinar to predict that the UK would be sued over Sadiq Khan’s decision to close Crossrail construction sites during the pandemic. The decision was at odds with the government’s policy of allowing sites to operate throughout lockdown, an inconsistency that they say opens up the way for a legal challenge.
Law firm Reed Smith has predicted that measures taken by governments to deal with the crisis are affecting investments “directly and significantly and could give rise to substantial claims”.
And Ropes & Gray has issued an alert advising clients to consider actions brought under investment treaties as “a powerful tool to recover or prevent loss resulting from Covid-19-related government actions”.
There are particular concerns about claims being brought against governments in the developing world.
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Almost half of all Brazilians think president Jair Bolsonaro bears “no responsibility at all” for the country’s more than 100,000 dead from the coronavirus pandemic, the world’s second highest death toll, according to a new Datafolha poll.
Reuters reports:
The poll was published on Saturday in Brazil’s Folha de São Paulo newspaper and says 47% of Brazilians do not assign him any blame for the body count, whereas 11% do.
Brazil has the world’s worst outbreak outside of the United States and Bolsonaro’s response to the pandemic has been widely condemned by health experts.
Rightwing Bolsonaro has pushed for the use of an unproven anti-malarial drug to fight the disease, replaced health ministers who opposed his agenda, encouraged Brazilians to oppose lockdown measures and shown indifference to the rising death toll.
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Four more people who tested positive for coronavirus have died in hospital in England, bringing the total number of confirmed reported deaths in hospitals to 29,456, NHS England said on Saturday, PA reports.
The patients were aged between 66 and 88 and they all had known underlying health conditions.
Six deaths have been reported with no positive Covid-19 test result.
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It should have been a great year for Spanish wine: a bumper crop of grapes resulting in millions and millions of extra bottles for sipping or swilling at home and abroad.
But with Covid-19 leading to a catastrophic drop in wine sales, the Spanish government is offering growers subsidies to destroy part of this year’s record grape harvest.
Faced with over-production in a shrinking market, €90m is to be spent either on destruction or on the distilling of grapes into brandy and industrial alcohol. Lower limits have also been set on the amount of wine that can be produced per hectare – and have already been imposed on makers of cava, Rueda and Rioja.
This year’s grape harvest is expected to produce 43 million hectolitres of wine, compared with 37 million in recent years. Even without Covid, this exceeds the combined domestic and international demand of 31 million hectolitres, but, to make matters worse, restaurant sales have fallen by 65% and exports by 49% since the start of the pandemic.
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You can read Nosheen Iqbal’s full dispatch here:
The German health minister defended a decision to declare nearly all of Spain, including the tourist island of Mallorca, a coronavirus risk region following a rise in cases there, Reuters reports.
Jens Spahn told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper:
I know how much the Germans love Spain ... But unfortunately the infection rates there are rising sharply, too sharply.
Whoever goes to Spain despite the warning should protect themselves and others while on holiday. Party holidays are irresponsible in this pandemic.
People returning to Germany from designated risk regions face a coronavirus test or two weeks’ compulsory quarantine.
Spahn’s comments came as the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany rose by 1,415, the biggest increase since late April, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed today.
Infections in Spain have also risen in recent days after it ended a tough lockdown seven weeks ago. The German move deals a new blow to hopes for a swift revival of mass tourism after months of lockdown all but wiped out this year’s high season.
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The first set of quarantiners from France began arriving at Gatwick airport at 10.20am on Saturday, missing the UK deadline to get back by a handful of hours. Returning holidaymakers expressed fury, resignation and confusion as five flights from the south of France arrived within an hour.
Reda, who had spent two weeks in Bordeaux with his wife, Elodie, and their five-year-old daughter, Sara, said:
How does it make sense? Either you allow people proper time to stagger getting back or you say quarantine is effective immediately.
A 12- or 24-hour deadline just means that 100,000 people rushed back one day earlier than us.. They’re more high risk because of that, and we are in quarantine and they’re out in open spaces.
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British holidaymakers have arrived back from France with minutes to spare before the new quarantine deadline, PA reports.
Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, announced late on Thursday that anyone arriving from France after 4am on Saturday would be required to quarantine for 14 days because of rising coronavirus cases in the country.
Matt, a teacher from Manchester, took his car on a Channel Tunnel train which was due to arrive back in the UK at 3.55am.
His family had been camping in the Dordogne and had planned to come home on Monday but changed their tickets for an extra £115. The family drove for 10 hours to Calais to catch the train and spent another £66 to stay at a hotel in the early hours before driving on to Manchester.
“We literally got on the last available train ... we’d been keeping up to date with the chaos at Calais so we were fearing the worst,” he said.
“Luckily, once we got to Calais we sailed through and actually got back at just gone 3am.”
Matt said he did not want his family to be in quarantine on his daughter’s eighth birthday next Friday, and the new measures would also have prevented a trip to see family in Scotland next weekend.
Updated
An Oxford college said it would accept all students with offers regardless of their A-level results, as thousands of Oxbridge alumni call on others to show equal “kindness and generosity” to downgraded pupils.
Laura Ashe, the tutor for admissions at Worcester College, Oxford, said it had decided to honour all UK offers this year because it is the “morally right thing to do”.
Read the full report:
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Hello, this is Aaron Walawalkar in London here. I’m looking after the blog while my colleague Aamna Mohdin takes a break. If you have any tips or suggestions for coverage, please DM me on Twitter at @AaronWala or email me at aaron.walawalkar.casual@theguardian.com.
Vietnam’s health ministry reported 21 new coronavirus infections and two deaths today, Reuters reports, bringing the total number of cases in the south-east Asian country to 950, with 23 fatalities.
More than 470 of the cases are linked to the central city of Danang, where a new outbreak began late last month.
The ministry said 115,858 people were being quarantined, including 4,182 at hospitals, 25,952 at centralised quarantine centres and the rest at home.
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Public health experts, researchers and manufacturers say the coming flu season could bring a twin respiratory disease outbreak in the US, just as autumn and winter are expected to exacerbate the spread of Covid-19.
At the same time, researchers said the strategies currently used to prevent coronavirus transmission – namely, hand-washing, mask-wearing and physical distancing – could also help lessen flu outbreaks, if Americans are willing to practice them.
“We will be faced with basically a double-barrel respiratory virus season, both influenza and Covid,” said Dr William Schaffner, medical director for the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases and a professor of medicine at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee.
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AFP reports:
When Keiron Marshall was 15, he found his way out of a desperate situation with help from an unexpected source: Eric Clapton. The guitarist hosted the first gig Marshall ever attended, and he was joined on stage by Gary Brooker of Procol Harum, The Who’s Pete Townshend and Ringo Starr from the Beatles.
Since then, London’s music scene has been a liferaft for Marshall, a musician who now runs a group of small concert venues with his wife. Growing up in south London, he’d endured racial slurs and regular beatings because of his Pakistani heritage. His uncle was killed in a racially motivated attack; his mother was a heroin addict.
“Music for us is a really personal thing”, said Hannah White, Marshall’s wife. “Its been totally life-changing.”
But the music scene they know and love may soon be unrecognisable because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has plunged the UK economy into its worst recession on record.
Live music venues have been forced to shut doors for nearly five months – and scores are at imminent risk of permanent closure. According to the charity Music Venue Trust, which represents 670 grassroots venues, more than 400 across the country are in crisis.
One of those is Marshall and White’s south London venue group, the Sound Lounge.
The government announced on Saturday that indoor and physically distanced live music could resume. But this does not mean that the live music scene will be immediately restored.
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Wearing face masks on public transport will be compulsory in Denmark from 22 August after a spike in new coronavirus cases, Mette Frederiksen, the prime minister, said today, according to a report by Reuters.
In mid-April, Denmark became one the first European countries to ease its coronavirus lockdown as the epidemic appeared to be contained, but the reproduction rate at which it is spreading rose above 1.5 in the past week, the highest reading since early April.
Frederiksen said the surge also meant that plans to remove a limit on the size of public gatherings would be deferred, with the limit remaining at 100 people for the time being.
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Theatres, casinos and bowling alleys are opening today as part of the latest easing of lockdown restrictions in England, Jessica Murray and Alex Mistlin report:
From Saturday, physically distanced audiences will be allowed back into indoor venues, while wedding receptions of up to 30 people will also be permitted.
Tattoo studios, beauty salons, spas and hairdressers will all be able to offer additional services, including front-of-face treatments such as eyebrow threading.
Danielle Simm, manager of Kolo Hair and Beauty, said she was excited to be starting up beauty treatments, with a huge waiting list of keen customers.
“I had a massive list full of clients ready. I said I’d open up on the Sunday [2 August] and then obviously Boris [Johnson] didn’t even give us 24 hours’ notice and it all got cancelled. People are literally desperate,” Simm said.
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Historians will savage Jair Bolsonaro for leading Brazilians into a deadly “canyon” with his shambling, self-interested and anti-scientific response to Covid-19, according to his former health minister.
In an interview with the Guardian, Luiz Henrique Mandetta accused the Brazilian president of playing a pivotal role in steering Latin America’s largest economy towards a catastrophe. Bolsonaro played politics with citizens’ lives at a time of global crisis, he said, as Brazil’s death toll rose to more than 105,000. Only the US has suffered more deaths.
Mandetta, who has hinted he will challenge Bolsonaro for the presidency in 2022, became a household name in the early stages of the pandemic. He drew praise from the left and the right for his accessible, science-based alerts over the threat of coronavirus during daily press conferences.
A 55-year-old orthopaedic doctor, Mandetta was elected to congress in 2010 and has faced criticism for opposing the Mais Médicos (More Doctors) health scheme that sent Cuban doctors to remote and deprived parts of Brazil. He was named health minister in November 2018, shortly after Bolsonaro’s surprise victory.
But he was sacked in mid-April after publicly challenging Bolsonaro’s sabotaging of physical distancing. Speaking from his base in the midwestern city of Campo Grande, he said the two had not spoken since.
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Businesses welcome customers back through their doors today as part of the latest easing of lockdown restrictions in England.
PA reports:
Businesses have said they are delighted to be welcoming customers back through their doors on Saturday as part of the latest easing of lockdown restrictions in England.
It comes after the prime minister announced that fines for repeatedly refusing to wear a mask could soar to £3,200 and organisers of illegal raves could face a £10,000 penalty.
Casinos and bowling alleys are among the venues now allowed to reopen under the latest guidance. Physically distanced audiences are also now allowed back into theatres and other indoor venues, while wedding receptions of up to 30 people will be permitted.
The move to allow indoor performances follows a “successful series of pilots”, Downing Street said.
Tattoo studios, beauty salons, spas and hairdressers can now offer additional services, including front-of-face treatments such as eyebrow threading.
The lockdown restrictions were due to be eased on 1 August, but a spike in coronavirus cases at the time resulted in a pause for two weeks.
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A spike in new coronavirus cases in South Korea has prompted authorities to reimpose tighter physical distancing regulations in Seoul, but that didn’t stop thousands of demonstrators from protesting against President Moon Jae-in’s policies.
Reuters reports:
For the second day in a row in over four months, the country has reported a sudden jump in locally transmitted cases, the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) said.
The KCDC reported 166 new cases as of Friday, of which 155 were domestic, prompting authorities to reintroduce antivirus measures as they worried about the spectre of a fresh wave of the disease.
The tougher rules come as thousands staged demonstrations in downtown Seoul, despite a ban on rallies in the capital city, with some conservative groups protesting against Moon’s recent real estate market policy and a series of sex scandals involving leaders of his administration.
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Russia has started manufacturing its controversial new vaccine
Reuters reports:
Russia has started manufacturing its new vaccine for Covid-19, the Interfax news agency reported on Saturday, citing the health ministry.
Russia has said the vaccine, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute and the first for coronavirus to go into production, will be rolled out by the end of this month.
Scientists said they feared Moscow might be putting national prestige before safety.
Updated
Russia has reported 5,061 new coronavirus cases and 119 deaths in the past 24 hours, compared with 5,065 new cases and 114 deaths on Friday.
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Hi, I’m Aamna Mohdin and I’ll be taking over the liveblog for the rest of the day. If you want to get in touch, you can email me (aamna.mohdin@theguardian.com) or tweet me.
Updated
Main developments so far today
I’m handing the blog over to my colleague Aamna Mohdin in London. I’ll leave you with some of the key events of the day so far:
- South Korea tightened coronavirus measures on Saturday in Seoul and its surrounding areas as the country reported the highest number of new daily infections in more than five months.
- New Zealand authorities are investigating whether a new coronavirus outbreak in the country could be linked to the wave of Covid-19 infections in the Australian state of Victoria. The country’s director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said he had been in contact with health officials in Victoria about an outbreak at an Americold cold storage facility in Melbourne.
- New Zealand recorded seven new cases of Covid-19 up to Saturday morning after the extension of the lockdown in Auckland. Six of the seven cases are linked to the cluster at the centre of the outbreak.
- The Australian state of Victoria recorded 303 new cases of Covid-19 and four deaths, two men and a woman in their 80s and a woman in her 90s. Two of the deaths are linked to outbreaks in aged care facilities.
- The Australian state of New South Wales recorded nine new cases with officials urging people who dined at Chopstix Asian Cuisine in Smithfield RSL club from Friday 31 July to Saturday 9 August to monitor for symptoms and immediately get tested and self-isolate if symptoms occur. Anyone who was at Rick Stein at Bannisters in Mollymook on Saturday 1 August needs to get tested and self-isolate immediately until midnight tonight or until they have received a negative result, whichever is later.
Updated
From AFP:
Thousands of UK holidaymakers scrambled to get home to beat new restrictions on arrivals from European countries as a second wave of virus infections threatened more disruption and economic chaos on the continent.
France and the Netherlands were removed from a list of quarantine-exempt countries on Friday, sparking a rush for plane, train and ferry tickets by Britons hoping to get home before 4am (0300 GMT) Saturday, after which arrivals will have to self-isolate for 14 days.
France is facing a resurgent wave of the disease that emerged in China late last year and has so far infected more than 21 million people and killed more than 750,000 around the world.
Authorities in France have reported more than 2,500 new cases for the past three days – levels not seen since May.
One British couple said they had spent nearly £1,000 (€1,105) to make it home via Eurostar from central France.
Updated
My colleague Patrick Collinson writes that Britain’s charity shops are struggling with sales declines of as much as one-third, despite enjoying bumper stock levels – and offering huge savings – following a surge in donations after households “decluttered” during lockdown.
Oxfam, which has 595 shops, said that money coming through its tills is down by 32% on a like-for-like basis compared to last year. The British Heart Foundation, which has around 740 shops, said income is currently down around 20%, with Barnardo’s and Cancer Research UK saying they are suffering similar declines.
Updated
In case you missed it earlier, my colleague Daniel Hurst has written this story about the Australian government’s homebuilder scheme:
Fewer than 250 people have applied for the Morrison government’s homebuilder scheme, officials have revealed, despite the hype from an industry association that it was the “most effective stimulus in decades”.
Appearing before the Senate’s Covid-19 select committee on Friday, Treasury officials revealed that the government was only aware of 247 formal applications so far. These included 157 in South Australia and 90 in Tasmania.
Updated
Seoul tightens restrictions as South Korea records highest Covid-19 cases since March
South Korea tightened coronavirus measures on Saturday in Seoul and its surrounding areas as the country reported the highest number of new daily infections in more than five months, AFP reports.
The stricter social distancing guidelines include restrictions on gatherings and activities including professional sports, which will be played behind closed doors in the capital area again.
The move came as South Korea reported 166 new cases on Saturday, the highest daily figure since early March, bringing the country’s total infections to 15,039 with 305 deaths.
South Korea stands at a “critical juncture” in the battle to control the coronavirus surge, prime minister Chung Sye-kyun said at a government response meeting.
“Our top priority is to contain the spread of the virus in the greater Seoul area.”
A majority of the new cases came from the greater Seoul region – home to half of the country’s 51 million people – raising fears about a major spike with a three-day weekend starting in South Korea from Saturday.
South Korea endured one of the worst early outbreaks outside mainland China but brought it broadly under control with extensive tracing and testing while never imposing the kind of lockdowns ordered in much of Europe and other parts of the world.
The country has been seen as a model on how to combat the pandemic with the public largely following safety health measures such as face masks. It even started allowing limited numbers of spectators at sports games in July – which was reversed for the greater Seoul region on Saturday.
Updated
This story, about a distressed staff member at an aged care home in Victoria pleading for help, is devastating. From my colleagues Melissa Davey, Lisa Cox and Stuart MacFarlane.
“There are NO staff available – we are begging for help with regard to staffing, and no one wants to place themselves in the ‘hot zone’. Therefore, it is all up to our depleted staff to help, feed, bathe, medicate and attend to residents who are basically dying.”
New Zealand authorities investigate whether outbreak could be linked to Victoria
New Zealand authorities say they are investigating whether the new outbreak there could be linked to Victoria.
At a press conference on Saturday, the country’s director general of health, Dr Ashley Bloomfield, said he had been in contact with health officials in Victoria about an outbreak at an Americold cold storage facility in Melbourne.
You’ll be aware that we have been doing some environmental testing as well at the Americold store in Mt Wellington, that is being processed today.
I have also had contact from my counterpart in Victoria who has linked me with their lab there, that is doing some genome sequencing on some [coronavirus] cases of employees in an Americold cool store there in Melbourne, just again to see if there is any possible linkage there, so we are looking at that possibility, it’s part of the overall puzzle and we are leaving no stone unturned.
Updated
Here’s a quick breakdown of some of the numbers in Victoria at the moment.
There are currently:
- 3,383 cases in the state which may indicate community transmission.
- 7,875 active cases.
- 661 people are in hospital, including 41 in intensive care,
- 8,121 people have recovered from the virus.
- More than 1,937,700 tests have been processed.
Of the total cases:
- 15,163 cases are from metropolitan Melbourne, while 997 are from regional Victoria.
- The total cases include 7,961 men and 8,512 women
- There are 1,178 active cases among healthcare workers, and 2,259 in total.
- There are 2,041 active cases relating to aged care facilities.
Active aged care outbreaks with the highest case numbers:
- 204 cases have been linked to Epping Gardens Aged Care in Epping.
- 190 cases have been linked to St Basil’s Homes for the Aged in Fawkner.
- 155 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Ardeer.
- 130 cases have been linked to Kirkbrae Presbyterian Homes in Kilsyth.
- 124 cases have been linked to BaptCare Wyndham Lodge Community in Werribee.
- 108 cases have been linked to Outlook Gardens Aged Care Facility in Dandenong North.
- 101 cases have been linked to Estia Aged Care Facility in Heidelberg.
- 93 cases have been linked to Twin Parks Aged Care in Reservoir.
- 91 cases have been linked to Arcare Aged Care Facility in Craigieburn.
- 83 cases have been linked to Glendale Aged Care Facility in Werribee.
Cases currently linked to key outbreaks are as follows:
- 203 cases have been linked to Bertocchi Smallgoods in Thomastown.
- 186 cases have been linked to Al-Taqwa College.
- 142 cases have been linked to JBS Brooklyn.
- 142 cases have been linked to Royal Melbourne Hospital Royal Park campus.
- 29 cases have been linked to Hazeldene’s Chicken Farm in Bendigo.
- 28 cases have been linked to Werribee Mercy Hospital.
- 27 cases have been linked to Coles Laverton Distribution centre.
- 21 cases have been linked to Jayco in Dandenong.
Updated
One new Covid-19 case in Western Australia
The Australian state of Western Australia has reported one new case of Covid-19 overnight, bringing the state’s total to 646.
The case is a man in his 30s in hotel quarantine. There are now five active cases in WA.
Four Australian men have been caught trying to dodge state border restrictions by sailing a houseboat from New South Wales to their home in Cairns, Queensland.
AAP reports that the men were intercepted in Gold Coast waters on Friday after leaving the NSW north-coast town of Coffs Harbour on Wednesday.
The four men on board the 14-metre catamaran were allegedly trying to make the journey home to Cairns, a journey of over 2,000km.
Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it proved those who tried to flout border restrictions by any means would be caught.
“They have all been fined for making a false declaration, and are now enjoying hotel quarantine at their own expense,” she told reporters on Saturday.
The premier also confirmed two members of a cargo ship off the Queensland coast who tested positive to coronavirus on Friday have now been evacuated to hospital.
Updated
Coronavirus cases in Latin America, the region of the world worst-affected by the pandemic, exceeded six million on Friday and continued to accelerate, according to a tally compiled by Reuters, as most of its nations begin to relax lockdown measures.
The region, which has reported an average of more than 86,000 daily infections of the new coronavirus in the last seven days and more than 2,600 Covid-19 deaths, reached 6,000,005 confirmed cases by Friday evening and 237,360 deaths.
That accounts for just under one-third of the world’s total case load and a similar share of reported deaths from the pandemic.
The Pan American Health Organization, the regional arm of the World Health Organisation, warned this month of an increase in other diseases due to the saturation of health services and the suspension of routine vaccination campaigns as a result of the pandemic.
The International Monetary Fund predicted in June that the regional economy would contract 9.4% this year.
The region’s worst-affected country is Brazil, which has the most cases in the world after the US, and 15% of world’s total. Peru and Chile also have the highest case loads and number of deaths in the world per 100,000 inhabitants, of countries with more than 100,000 cases.
The region’s climb from five million to six million cases took 11 days, one day less than it took to reach the previous million.
Updated
Our photographer Mike Bowers took these snaps of a flyover Parliament House in Canberra to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War Two this morning.
Updated
Here is a little more on those New Zealand numbers:
New Zealand reported seven new cases of coronavirus up to Saturday morning after a lockdown in Auckland was extended.
Six of the seven new cases were linked to the cluster at the centre of all the previous community cases, said Ashley Bloomfield, the director general of health.
Up to Saturday, the authorities in New Zealand have reported 37 cases connected to the outbreak with 19 other people in quarantine.
The lockdown in Auckland, home to 1.7 million people, was extended for nearly two weeks after New Zealand reported 12 confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Friday.
The outbreak has delayed the start of the New Zealand women’s provincial rugby competition for at least two weeks. It had been scheduled to start on 22 August.
Updated
For an overview of what is happening internationally, we have this from AFP:
Countries among the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic unveiled further measures on Friday to battle rising infections, as the number of cases worldwide passed 21 million.
The US Department of Homeland Security said it was extending a ban on non-essential travel through border crossings with Canada and Mexico throughout most of September “to slow the spread” of the disease.
Meanwhile Britain added France to its list of countries hit with a mandatory two-week quarantine for returning holidaymakers from Saturday, as Paris confronts a resurgent second wave of infections.
Confirmed cases in France reached levels not seen since May on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, at over 2,500 new cases per day.
The rising threat prompted Paris police to announce on Friday that compulsory mask-wearing outside would be extended to more areas of the French capital, including the famed Louvre museum and Champs-Elysee avenue.
“If the epidemiological situation deteriorates again, mask-wearing could become compulsory throughout the capital,” Paris police warned, also banning gatherings and protests of more than 10 people which do not comply with distancing measures.
Neighbouring Spain said it would close all nightclubs and ban smoking in the street where people are unable to stay at a safe distance, after the country reported almost 3,000 cases in 24 hours on Thursday.
In Germany, the Robert Koch Institute for disease control added all of Spain except the Canary Islands to its list of regions where incoming travellers must show a negative test for Covid-19 or quarantine for 14 days.
Austria urged its citizens to return from popular Mediterranean destination Croatia before similar rules come into effect on Monday, while Serbia introduced mandatory testing for travellers from four neighbouring countries.
And thousands of Albanians queued in their cars at the Greek border, hoping to squeeze across and return to work before tougher entry requirements designed to brake mounting infections come into effect.
Some people had been waiting for three days in the 20km (12-mile), 4,000-car jam, an Albanian police source said.
Updated
No new cases in Queensland, ACT
Queensland and the ACT have both recorded no new Covid-19 cases on Saturday.
Queensland has only nine active cases remaining, while there are no active cases in the ACT.
Updated
Vietnam has registered to buy the new Russian Covid-19 vaccine, even as scientists raise concerns about the speed of its development and suggest researchers might be cutting corners.
Following Russia’s approval of a controversial Covid-19 vaccine for widespread use after less than two months of human testing, Vietnamese state television has reported the country is looking to buy a bulk order of the so-called “Sputnik” vaccine.
The Bangkok Post reports the country’s health ministry has not said how many doses of the Russian vaccine it had ordered, or when it expected to receive them.
Updated
And that’s all from Victoria.
On to the really important stuff now.
Andrews is asked whether, if the AFL grand final is relocated out of Victoria, there will still be a public holiday in the state.
Well, it will still be the Friday before the grand final. So I would say yes. I reckon, I reckon Victorians may well have earned that ... No matter where the grand final is played, and if some in the business community want to have a crack at me today, if that makes them feel better then fine.
Updated
'Insecure work is toxic', Daniel Andrews says
Daniel Andrews steps back up to make some comments on outbreaks in workplaces. He says there is a “broader point” about insecure work:
Insecure work is toxic. There is nothing good about insecure work, and when this is done, when this virus has been beaten, we will need to commit ourselves to do something really significant about it. It is no good for anything, for families, for a sense of security [and] for public health, for any purpose. We have a lot of people who work very hard but have no safety net to fall back on and that is just not something we should settle for.
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Victoria's four deaths 'probably a blip' after days of mounting casualties
The state’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, says the relatively low four deaths in Victoria on Saturday is “probably a blip”.
It probably is a blip. I think it is always pleasing not to have a day of 10 or 20 deaths, they are awful days. But the numbers will vary from day to day, and we note that with 2,000 infected residents and staff in aged care, a very vulnerable population, that we will see more deaths with those infections.
Updated
Back in Victoria, Daniel Andrews is asked about what he thinks 2021 might look like. He says the best we can hope for is a “Covid normal” year.
2021 will not be a normal year, it will be at best a Covid normal year. Unless of course a vaccine can be developed, produced and administered, which I don’t think will be happening, all three of those things inside a year, I genuinely hope to be proven wrong and that, but that seems to be, despite very promising signs, that could be a long way off. So it is not normal we are looking for, it is a Covid normal.
New Zealand records seven new Covid-19 cases
To New Zealand, where Reuters reports that seven cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the past 24 hours.
Six of the seven new cases have been linked to the cluster responsible for all the previous community cases, director general of health Ashley Bloomfield told a media briefing in Wellington.
It comes as a lockdown in the country’s biggest city, Auckland, was extended on Friday in response to the country’s first Covid-19 outbreak in months. The lockdown in Auckland, home to 1.7 million people, was extended for nearly two weeks, after New Zealand reported 12 confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Friday.
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Andrews is asked about this exclusive Guardian Australia report on horrific footage of a 95-year-old woman in a Melbourne aged care facility struck by Covid-19, showing ants crawling from a wound on her leg and the bandages around it crusted with blood.
He describes it as “shameful”. The footage “will be very distressing for everyone concerned”.
I think that footage relates to a particular facility which we have now taken over, so I would hope, I would hope that any of those issues would be dealt with quickly.
Hospital nurses have gone and taken over in a number of these situations and I think they have taken over for good reasons. It does not serve any purpose for me from this podium to kind of be a commentator on that system, I think the most important thing is to focus on the residents and their families and get the other side of this and provide the care and dignity that every single senior Victorian is fundamentally entitled to.
Updated
Andrews is asked when he last had a day off:
I couldn’t tell you. I don’t know. I don’t stop because this virus doesn’t stop. It’s not just me. It is a team of thousands. Thousands of people. Thousands and thousands of people who have never worked harder.
Andrews is asked about reports in Melbourne newspapers today that the trajectory of cases suggests the state ease restrictions substantially by December. He says you can “try and extrapolate out about what months ahead look like” but that he hasn’t done that.
I think it is too far away for us to have the clarity that we would need to make those assorted predictions ... We will get to the other side of this. We will. But for my judgement it is too early for us to be making predictions about when that is.
Updated
Daniel Andrews is asked about reports that a Victorian handbag company has been making home deliveries to “well-heeled customers”.
He says that home visits are only allowed in urgent cases and that handbag deliveries are not urgent.
“There is nothing urgent about a luxury handbag,” he says.
Updated
Sutton says the virus reproduction rate is now “almost certainly below one”.
It can get to 0.4, 0.5, if everyone can do the right thing. That is where it was probably headed to in April when we were in another very substantial lockdown and we saw numbers drop very dramatically. If we can get to an effective reproduction number at a similar level we should see a similar reduction over time so that is encouraging.
Victoria’s chief health officer Brett Sutton says the number of new cases in the state appears to have “stabilised”.
People should have “hope and confidence the things we know work are now manifesting in our daily counts”, he says.
It is not to say we will not continue to work extremely hard on addressing these challenging settings, but we are seeing the benefits of what everyone is doing in the community in wearing masks and getting tested and isolating when they have the very first symptoms and in complying with isolation and quarantine when contacted by the department.
Updated
Andrews says Victoria has established a dedicated disability rapid response outbreak unit in conjunction with the commonwealth to deal with cases in that sector.
He says the unit will be tasked with the “appropriate arrangements for infection prevention and control, additional PPE, in-home testing, and making sure we are keeping a very close eye and monitoring the health status and therefore the potential virus status of residents and clients”.
There are currently 89 cases in the disability sector in Victoria.
Updated
There are 184 deaths associated with aged care outbreaks, Andrews says.
There are currently Covid-19 outbreaks in 124 aged care facilities in Victoria, 119 of those are in privately run aged care homes.
Andrews says there are 3,383 cases from an unknown source, an increase of 264 in the past 24 hours.
Before people see that as a very, very big increase on previous days, we have always made the point or try to that coronavirus detective work it’s all done in one hit. It does take time to try and work out, try to exhaust all possible sources and then to declare that case a mystery case. So they do come in batches, if you like. I would not read too much more into that, it is simply the product of multiple days’ work being brought to book, as it were, recorded in our numbers.
Updated
Victorian death toll at 293 after 303 new cases, four deaths in the state.
Daniel Andrews is speaking now.
As we heard there are 303 new cases of Covid-19 in Victoria. It brings the total number of confirmed cases in the state to 16,517 confirmed cases. There are now 293 deaths in Victoria, an increase of four since yesterday.
The four new deaths are a female in her 80s, two males in their 80s and one female in her 90s. Two of the four are connected with aged care outbreaks.
Updated
Nine new cases reported in NSW
The Australian state of New South Wales recorded nine new cases of Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
The NSW health department reports that one of the new cases is a staff member of Chopstix Asian Cuisine in Smithfield RSL, whose source is unknown at this point.
- Another staff member at Chopstix Asian Cuisine, is likely a secondary infection from the above case.
- One is a student from Tangara School for Girls.
- One attended Mounties club at Mount Pritchard.
- Five are close contacts of known cases.
Anyone who dined at Chopstix Asian Cuisine restaurant from Friday 31 July to Saturday 9 August is considered a casual contact who must monitor for symptoms and immediately get tested and self-isolate if symptoms occur.
A case dined at Rick Stein at Bannisters in Mollymook on Saturday, 1 August. Anyone who was at the restaurant on this night between 8pm and 10.30pm for at least one hour is considered a close contact and must get tested for Covid-19 right away and self-isolate until midnight tonight or until they have received a negative result, whichever is later.
Updated
This seems bad.
Via the AP, the U.S. Postal Service is warning states coast to coast that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted, even if mailed by state deadlines, raising the possibility that millions of voters could be disenfranchised.
Voters and lawmakers in several states are also complaining that some curbside mail collection boxes are being removed.
Even as President Donald Trump rails against wide-scale voting by mail, the post office is bracing for an unprecedented number of mail-in ballots as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
The warning letters sent to states raise the possibility that many Americans eligible for mail-in ballots this fall will not have them counted. But that is not the intent, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said in his own letter to Democratic congressional leaders.
The post office is merely asking elected officials and voters to realistically consider how the mail works, and be mindful of our delivery standards, in order to provide voters ample time to cast ballots through the mail,” wrote DeJoy, a prominent Trump political donor who was recently appointed.
The back-and-forth comes amid a vigorous campaign by Trump to sow doubts about mail-in voting as he faces a difficult fight for re-election against Democrat Joe Biden.
Though Trump casts his own ballots by mail, he has repeatedly criticised efforts to allow more people to do so, which he argues without evidence will lead to increased voter fraud that could cost him the election.
Meanwhile, members of Congress from both parties have voiced concerns that curbside mail boxes, which is how many will cast their ballots, have abruptly been removed in some states.
Officials in more than a dozen states, including the presidential election battlegrounds of Michigan and Pennsylvania, all confirmed to The Associated Press on Friday that they had received the warning letters.
“This is a deeply troubling development in what is becoming a clear pattern of attempted voter suppression by the Trump administration”, Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam said in a statement.
“I am committed to making sure all Virginians have access to the ballot box, and will continue to work with state and federal lawmakers to ensure safe, secure and accessible elections this fall.”
Kim Wyman, the Republican secretary of state in Washington state, where all voting is by mail, said sending fall ballot material to millions of voters there is a routine operation of the US Postal Service.
“Politicizing these administrative processes is dangerous and undermines public confidence in our elections”, she said in a statement.
“This volume of work is by no means unusual, and is an operation I am confident the US Postal Service is sufficiently prepared to fulfill.”
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The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, will hold a press conference at 11am.
Australia is delivering humanitarian supplies to Beirut as the city continues to reel from a blast that left more than 170 people dead and 30,000 homeless.
On Saturday the country’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced the delivery will include shelter kits and mobile warehouses to replace destroyed storage facilities, in addition to the $5m in aid already promised to organisations like the Red Cross Movement and Unicef.
The federal government said the supplies will be distributed by trusted NGOs, including the Red Cross, and Australia’s UN partners. An Australian Defence Force C-130J Hercules aircraft based in the Middle East is touching down in the Lebanon capital on Saturday.
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Police in Victoria, Australia, have issued 223 fines to people in the past 24 hours for breaching the state’s tough lockdown measures. Twenty-seven of them were for failing to wear a face covering when leaving home, now mandatory in the state.
Other fines included:
- A man who lives in Truganina and was allegedly located in Box Hill. Police said the man believed Covid-19 to be a conspiracy, and that he was targeted by police.
- A man who resides in Morwell allegedly travelled by train to Drouin so he could go for a walk.
- A driver in Wyndham was allegedly intercepted by police whilst on his way to buy fast food. Police said he was also watching Netflix on his phone whilst driving.
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Businesses in England are “delighted” to be welcoming customers back through their doors on Saturday, as part of the latest easing of lockdown restrictions in the country, the Press Association reports.
A new raft of eased restrictions will come into place in England on Saturday, allowing businesses such as casinos and indoor theatres to reopen, while wedding receptions of up to 30 people will also be permitted.
Tattoo studios, beauty salons, spas and hairdressers will all be able to offer additional services from Saturday, including front of face treatments such as eyebrow threading.
Alice Bellamy, 67, from Calne in Wiltshire, has been a beauty therapist for 27 years and runs specialist laser hair removal studio Woman to Woman & The Male Perspective Ltd.
She said: “I am indeed delighted. One day’s notice is not amazing but it’s typical of the total ineptitude of this Government and its handling of this pandemic.
“But I am overjoyed and so are my clients, my phone has been hot, hot, hot.”
The lockdown restrictions were due to be eased on 1 August, but a spike in coronavirus cases at the time resulted in them being paused for two weeks.
Meanwhile Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said an estimated 160,000 holidaymakers were expected to try to return to the UK from France on Friday before the new quarantine measures were brought in.
Travellers returning to or visiting the UK from France, the Netherlands, Monaco, Malta, Turks & Caicos and Aruba after 4am on Saturday will be required to self-isolate for two weeks.
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We expect to hear more from the Victorian government on the 303 new cases reported earlier this morning, but in the meantime it’s worth noting these figures at least appear to be a sign of a slow downward trend.
Over the past five days Victoria recorded 372, 278, 410, 331 and 303 cases respectively.
“The seven-day trend indicates the peak was probably four or five days ago and we will continue to see lower numbers overall from here on in,” the state’s chief medical officer Brett Sutton said on Friday.
303 infections in Victoria today pic.twitter.com/0G350grTRI
— casey briggs (@CaseyBriggs) August 14, 2020
The New Zealand Herald reports that a person who has tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in Japan had recently visited Rotorua and Taupō in NZ, prompting health officials in the country to warn there was a possibility people may have been infected at two locations:
- The Wairakei Terraces between 6pm and 7pm on Thursday, 6 August 6 and;
- Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland on Friday, 7 August, between 9am and 10.15am
New Zealand had appeared to have effectively eliminated the Covid-19 virus, but a new outbreak saw 13 new cases diagnosed in the country on Friday.
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The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has just been talking to Sydney radio station 2GB about the findings of the Ruby Princess inquiry, which cleared federal agencies of wrongdoing in the saga.
Morrison said:
It is as we said it was. We were being straight with people about what happened and I think the inquiry has borne that out.
On the New South Wales health department, which was criticised in the final report for making “serious errors” in handling the debacle, Morrison said it had been “a very difficult time”.
Officials will make mistakes in a pandemic that none of us have had to manage before. I think there have been some humble learnings in NSW and I’ve seen NSW go from strength to strength.
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Good morning and welcome to our rolling coverage of the Covid-19 pandemic. Here’s how things stand:
- Australia’s Covid-19 death toll stands at 379 after Victoria reported 303 new cases and four deaths on Saturday. It came after a man in his 20s became the youngest person to die of the virus in Australia on Friday amid the second-wave outbreak in the city of Melbourne. Also on Friday a long-awaited report into the Ruby Princess cruise ship debacle – which saw hundreds of infections spread around the country after the ship was allowed to dock in Sydney despite having infectious patients on board – found the New South Wales Health department made multiple “serious errors”.
- France has recorded another new post-lockdown record rise in cases, with 2,846 new infections. The UK has removed the country from its travel corridor, meaning all holidaymakers returning from France will have to self-isolate for two weeks, prompting British tourists to scramble to cross the Channel before the cut-off time on Saturday 4am BST.
- In the UK, the North West, West Yorkshire, East Lancashire and Leicester face a third week under tightened coronavirus restrictions as the latest figures showed no decrease in the number of infections, the Department of Health has said.
- Germany has declared almost all of Spain as a coronavirus risk region following surging infections – a further blow to the country’s tourism industry.
- Greece is limiting public gatherings to 50 people amid a recent spike in cases. The measure will be in place until 24 August in areas with high infection numbers. The government has imposed a midnight curfew on bars and restaurants in Athens and other regions.
- The EU has reached a deal with British company AstraZeneca for at least 300m doses of its vaccine candidate. The deal includes an option to purchase a further 100m doses should the vaccine prove safe and effective.
- Brazil has reported 50,644 new coronavirus infections and 1,060 new deaths, the health ministry said on Friday. The country’s tally now stands at 3,275,520 confirmed cases and 106,523 deaths, making it second globally in terms of the number of cases and deaths after the US.
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Croatia recorded 208 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the country’s chief epidemiologist Krunoslav Capak has said. Croatia will require bars and nightclubs to close after midnight for a period of 10 days from this weekend, similarly to Greece.
You can follow me on twitter at @mmcgowan or email me at michael.mcgowan@theguardian.com
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