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The Culture Secretary in England has confirmed arts venues can remain open for rehearsals during the country’s lockdown.
Oliver Dowden said while audiences will not be able to attend the venues they are “places of work” and will therefore be able to remain open.
Footage of performances taking place inside venues will also be permitted to be streamed online when tougher restrictions come into force in England, he confirmed on Twitter.
“Arts venues are places of work, so people can come into them for work, if it cannot be undertaken from home,” he wrote.
“This includes rehearsals and performance. Audiences are not permitted.”
A number of productions, including Les Miserables in the West End and a panto at the London Palladium, are due to return to the stage with socially distanced audiences over the festive period.
Argentina is expecting 10 million doses of Russia’s main experimental COVID-19 vaccine between December and January, the government said, as infections continue to climb in the South American country.
The vaccine, known as Sputnik V, is given in two doses and could begin arriving as early as next month, the government said in a news release. The price of the Russian vaccine would be “more or less average” compared with others, President Alberto Fernandez said in the release.
“We had a proposal from the Russian foreign ministry and the Russian (Direct Investment) Fund to see if Argentina was interested in having doses of the vaccine in the month of December and of course we said yes,” Fernandez said.
The Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF) is backing the development and roll-out of the Sputnik V vaccine. Fernandez said talks with RDIF had been going on “for quite some time.”
Officials including Argentina’s deputy health minister had traveled to Russia to review the vaccine’s development, the government said.
“The Sputnik V vaccine for Argentina will be produced by RDIF partners in India, Korea, China and a number of other countries that are setting up a production of the Russian vaccine,” RDIF’s CEO, Kirill Dmitriev, said in comments shared by a company spokesman.
The Labour party in England has called for Chancellor Rishi Sunak to engage in cross-party talks to produce a six-month economic support plan to guide the country through coronavirus.
Shadow chancellor Anneliese Dodds said the Treasury should “stop the last-minute scramble” and combine with opposition leaders, businesses and unions to draw up a long-term strategy.
Dodds has written to her Government counterpart after he announced on Saturday that, to coincide with the second national lockdown for England, the furlough scheme would continue in its current form, paying 80% of employees’ wages for hours not worked, up to a maximum of 2,500 per month.
In her letter to Sunak, she said the announcement “just hours before” the initial furlough scheme was due to end was “symptomatic” of what she said appeared to be a “lack of any strategic planning by the Government to support jobs and businesses”.
Portugal considering state of emergency to tackle Covid-19
Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he is pondering declaring a state of emergency as a preventive measure to fight the spread of the coronavirus at a time when infections are soaring.
Hours after Prime Minister Antonio Costa asked the president to declare the state of emergency, Rebelo de Sousa said in an interview with RTP Television he was considering the request, explaining it would include specific measures to combat the pandemic but not a “total or nearly total” lockdown.
The initial COVID-19 state of emergency, which under Portuguese law is limited to 15 days but can be extended indefinitely in 15-day periods if necessary, was declared in March and lasted six weeks.
It restricted the movement of people and led thousands of businesses to suspend activities, devastating the once-bailed-out economy.
“The economy cannot handle a (total) confinement,” Rebelo de Sousa said during the interview at his official residence. “What is being considered is a different thing.”
If Rebelo de Sousa declares an emergency, lawmakers must approve it, which is considered highly likely.
On Saturday, the government introduced measures, such as the civic duty - a recommendation rather than a rule - to stay at home except for outings for work, school or shopping, across 121 municipalities including in the key regions of Lisbon and Porto.
A state of emergency would clear the way for compulsory measures such as restrictions on movement of people but only if and when needed.
The Premier League in England has confirmed four positive coronavirus tests have been returned from the latest round of testing.
The government has allowed Premier League football and other elite sports to continue during a four-week ‘circuit break’ lockdown, which will start in England on Thursday, due to the strict testing regimes in place.
In total, 1,446 players and club staff were tested for coronavirus between Monday, October 26 and Sunday, November 1.
Players or club staff who have tested positive will self-isolate for a period of 10 days.
In Australia, travellers from regional NSW are now able to go to Queensland for the first time in almost four months but Sydneysiders are still not welcome in the Sunshine State.
Travel restrictions eased at 1am on Tuesday (Australia time), with the Queensland border flung open to everyone except those in greater Sydney and Victoria.
The NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is irate that Sydney residents are banned, arguing the bar Queensland has set for resuming free travel between the states is too high.
Meanwhile, Berejiklian has indicated a reopening of the NSW border with Victoria could happen soon.
We’re talking weeks not months in terms of when the Victorian border may come down, but that again is based on health advice,” she told reporters on Monday.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if we moved more quickly against Victoria than Queensland did against us.”
When asked if an announcement would be made this week, Berejiklian said “potentially, yes”.
Some of Germany’s top orchestras, including Berlin’s prestigious Staatskapelle and the Munich Philharmonic, staged protests on Monday, warning that coronavirus lockdowns pose an existential threat to the arts and entertainment industries.
Musicians from the internationally-renowned ensembles in Berlin and Munich, as well as the orchestra of the Bavarian State Opera in Munich, staged a minute’s silence at the start of their respective concerts.
And on Twitter, a wide range number of artists posted pictures of records turning without any sound.
They argue that not enough support is being made available to people in the sector as Germany shuts down its theatres, concert halls, opera houses and museums for the next four weeks as part of a wider tightening of measures to try to curb a second wave of Covid-19 infections.
Freelance musicians in particular are finding it difficult to survive as they frequently do not qualify for the furlough schemes introduced for paid employees in other sectors.
Culture Minister Monika Gruetters said she was “greatly concerned” for the industry.
“Even if the new restrictions are understandable” from a health point of view, they constitute “a catastrophe” for the sector, she said.
A summary of today's developments
- Italy’s coronavirus strategy is ‘wasting time’, says scientific advisor. Italy is working towards measures that could include a national 9pm curfew, a ban on inter-regional travel and the closure of shopping malls at weekends. But scientists have for weeks been urging the government to take tougher action, such as imposing local lockdowns, as infections escalate and hospitals come under strain.
- Slovakia carries out Covid mass testing of two-thirds of population. Two-thirds of Slovakia’s population of 5.4 million people were tested for coronavirus over the weekend as part of a programme aimed at making it one of the first countries to test its entire population.
- Germany begins ‘light lockdown’. Germany goes into “lockdown light” mode today, as the country’s disease control agency recorded 12,097 new confirmed Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours. Bars, cinemas, theatres, museums, fitness studios and swimming pools will remain closed from today, while cafes and restaurants are allowed to offer takeaway food only. Meetings in public are restricted to two households and no more than 10 people. Unlike during the first lockdown in the spring, schools and nurseries will stay open.
- Coronavirus infections fall for third day straight in the Netherlands. The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands rose by nearly 8,300 over the past 24 hours, the slowest pace in roughly two weeks.
- Iran reports record high Covid death toll as travel bans go into force. Iran reported a record 440 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing the country’s death toll to 35,738 as a ban on travel in and out of major cities came into force.
- Donald Trump tries to stoke fears of Covid lockdown under Joe Biden. In the final hours before election day, one of Trump’s closing messages to Americans was an exaggerated threat: that a Joe Biden presidency will result in a national Covid-19 lockdown. Speaking in Iowa on Sunday, the president said the election was a “choice between a deadly Biden lockdown … or a safe vaccine that ends the pandemic”.
- The European Union (EU) has agreed to provide Mozambique with 100 million euros ($116.30 million) in coronavirus-related aid. The EU cut off direct budget support to Mozambique in 2016 after the country revealed the existence of hefty state-guaranteed loans that it had not previously disclosed.
- T-cell Covid immunity ‘present in adults six months after first infection’. Cellular (T-cell) immunity against the virus that causes Covid-19 is likely to be present within most adults six months after primary infection, with levels considerably higher in patients with symptoms, a study suggests.
The Labour party in the UK has asked the cabinet secretary to “undertake an urgent and swift investigation” into the vaccines taskforce chief after it was claimed she showed US financiers “official sensitive” government documents at a $200-a-head conference last week.
The Countess of Wessex in England joined the nation in paying a poignant tribute to all those who died after being diagnosed with Covid-19.
Sophie lit a candle to remember more than 46,000 people who have died during the pandemic, as she took part in the Sung Eucharist for All Souls’ Day at Westminster Abbey.
Around 150 worshippers, including the Countess, wore facemasks at the scaled-down service and sat socially-distanced two metres apart.
The Countess led prayers inside the abbey and then lit a candle to remember the dead.
Sophie, 55, wearing a metal poppy pinned to her black dress, removed her pale blue face mask to read Bible passage Romans chapter five, verses 5-11, from The New Testament.
The European Union (EU) has agreed to provide Mozambique with 100 million euros ($116.30 million) in coronavirus-related aid, EU Ambassador Antonio Sanchez-Benedito Gaspar said.
The EU cut off direct budget support to Mozambique in 2016 after the country revealed the existence of hefty state-guaranteed loans that it had not previously disclosed.
A number of other donors including the International Monetary Fund also halted aid to Mozambique.
Sanchez-Benedito Gaspar told a press conference in the capital Maputo that the agreement had “different characteristics” to the direct budget support the EU used to provide, and was focused specifically on helping with the socio-economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We are happy to have carried out this specific two-year program, for an amount of 100 million euros,” he said, adding the agreement was covered by monitoring and transparency clauses.
Mozambique had reported 13,130 cases of the coronavirus as of Monday, with 94 deaths.
When COVID-19 patients are admitted to the hospital because of pneumonia, doctors can estimate their risk of needing mechanical breathing support or dying based on their “viral load” - the amount of virus genetic material obtained by swabbing the back of the nose and throat, a new study suggests.
This risk can be predicted regardless of how sick they are when they are admitted, what other comorbidities they may have, their age or how many days they had symptoms,” co-author Dr. Ioannis Zacharioudakis of NYU School of Medicine told Reuters.
His team studied 314 patients, dividing them into three groups according to viral load upon hospital admission.
The group with highest viral levels had 59% higher odds of becoming critically ill or dying than the lowest viral load group.
The data, published in Annals of the American Thoracic Society, “will have practical implications in our ability to judge which patients will benefit the most from early escalation of care, treatment with antivirals and/or inclusion in trials of new therapeutics,” Zacharioudakis said.
North West Ambulance Service in England said it has declared a major incident due to a high level of calls.
“We’ve declared a major incident due to the high level of calls,” a statement said.
“If your call is not life-threatening, you may be asked to seek an alternative source of care or make your way to hospital.”
Summary
Here’s a quick rundown of all the latest coronavirus developments from the past few hours.
- Italy’s coronavirus strategy is ‘wasting time’, says scientific advisor. Italy is working towards measures that could include a national 9pm curfew, a ban on inter-regional travel and the closure of shopping malls at weekends. But scientists have for weeks been urging the government to take tougher action, such as imposing local lockdowns, as infections escalate and hospitals come under strain.
- Slovakia carries out Covid mass testing of two-thirds of population. Two-thirds of Slovakia’s population of 5.4 million people were tested for coronavirus over the weekend as part of a programme aimed at making it one of the first countries to test its entire population.
- Germany begins ‘light lockdown’. Germany goes into “lockdown light” mode today, as the country’s disease control agency recorded 12,097 new confirmed Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours. Bars, cinemas, theatres, museums, fitness studios and swimming pools will remain closed from today, while cafes and restaurants are allowed to offer takeaway food only. Meetings in public are restricted to two households and no more than 10 people. Unlike during the first lockdown in the spring, schools and nurseries will stay open.
- Coronavirus infections fall for third day straight in the Netherlands. The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands rose by nearly 8,300 over the past 24 hours, the slowest pace in roughly two weeks.
- Iran reports record high Covid death toll as travel bans go into force. Iran reported a record 440 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing the country’s death toll to 35,738 as a ban on travel in and out of major cities came into force.
- Donald Trump tries to stoke fears of Covid lockdown under Joe Biden. In the final hours before election day, one of Trump’s closing messages to Americans was an exaggerated threat: that a Joe Biden presidency will result in a national Covid-19 lockdown. Speaking in Iowa on Sunday, the president said the election was a “choice between a deadly Biden lockdown … or a safe vaccine that ends the pandemic”.
- T-cell Covid immunity ‘present in adults six months after first infection’. Cellular (T-cell) immunity against the virus that causes Covid-19 is likely to be present within most adults six months after primary infection, with levels considerably higher in patients with symptoms, a study suggests.
That’s all from me today, I’m now handing over to my colleague Nadeem Badshah. Thanks for reading along and stay safe.
Police in the Bulgarian capital Sofia will help transport coronavirus patients to hospital to cover for a severe shortage of ambulances, health minister Kostadin Angelov said.
Ten police vehicles will join the 25 health service ambulances currently serving the city of over two million people, Angelov told reporters after talks with the interior ministry.
The 10 vehicles will comprise six ambulances normally only used to treat police officers and four minivans equipped with a driver and a paramedic.
The move came after an outcry on social media caused by the death on Saturday of a 33-year-old coronavirus patient, whose relatives said they waited hours for an ambulance to transport him to hospital after his condition deteriorated.
One doctor quoted in local media complained that on the same day the shortage of beds had led to hospitals refusing to take in patients, giving the example of a patient in a serious condition stranded in an ambulance for two hours.
Emergency services say they are flooded with calls and hospital capacity is under severe strain.
“Emergency doctors are exhausted. We are at war: we need to mobilise all possible resources against the pandemic,” Sofia ER spokeswoman Katya Sungarska said on Monday.
Bulgarian hospitals have been hard hit by a rise in infections among medical staff amid a second wave of Covid-19 and have launched appeals for medical students and other volunteers to help.
Many private hospitals have meanwhile refused to admit coronavirus patients, sparking anger. The health minister has threatened to cut the public funding they receive if they refuse to open at least 10% of their capacity for the treatment of coronavirus patients.
Angelov said this requirement would boost the number of intensive care beds in Sofia from the current 700 to 1,200.
Apart from the police vehicles, health services in Sofia will also receive 17 new ambulances by the end of the week, Angelov added.
Bulgaria, which weathered the first wave of the pandemic in the spring relatively well, is experiencing a harsh second wave. A surge in the number of new infections over the past week has taken the total from under 38,000 to over 54,000.
The government has meanwhile refused to impose a lockdown, with primary schools, restaurants and bars still open.
The country of just under seven million people has so far reported close to 1,300 coronavirus-related deaths.
France reports record 52,000 daily Covid-19 cases
French health authorities have reported 52,518 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, setting a new daily record since the outbreak of the disease.
The latest figure is up from 46,290 new cases recorded on Sunday.
That tally suggests the new lockdown put in place on Friday in the country is yet to produce its first effects, as hospitalisations for the disease have gone up by more than a 1,000 again, reaching a four-months high of 25,143.
The number of people in France who have died from Covid-19 infections rose by to 416, versus 231 on Sunday and a seven day moving average of 345.
The cumulative number of cases now totals 1,466,433.
Updated
In the final hours before election day, one of Donald Trump’s closing messages to Americans is an unsubstantiated threat: that a Joe Biden presidency will result in a national Covid-19 lockdown.
Speaking in Iowa on Sunday, the president said the election was a “choice between a deadly Biden lockdown … or a safe vaccine that ends the pandemic”.
Coronavirus cases are surging in the US and most battleground states are particularly badly affected. On Friday, the total case count surpassed 9m while the daily count set a new world record, at about 100,000. On Sunday 81,493 new cases were reported, according to Johns Hopkins University, and 447 new deaths. Nearly 231,000 people have died.
In Iowa, painting a dark and dystopian vision, Trump told a crowd of closely packed supporters, many not wearing masks: “The Biden plan will turn America into a prison state locking you down, while letting the far-left rioters roam free to loot and burn.”
That came after he told a rally in Pennsylvania, another swing state, there would be “no school, no graduations, no weddings, no Thanksgivings, no Christmas, no Easters, no Fourth of Julys” under a Biden administration.
In an interview in August, Biden was asked if he would shut the US down if scientists said he should do so. He said: “I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists.” Biden has since clarified that he was referring to whether he would follow advice, saying: “There’s going to be no need, in my view, to be able to shut down the whole economy.”
In October, Biden said: “I don’t think there’s a need to lock down.”
The Hungarian government will decide later this week whether to impose new restrictions to curb the spread of coronavirus infections, prime minister Viktor Orbán’s cabinet chief told local Inforadio.
Gergely Gulyás did not specify what the new measures would be, but he was cited as saying that schools would remain open.
World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who is self-isolating at home, will be tested for Covid-19 if he displays symptoms, a senior official said.
“Our current protocols don’t require that he be tested,” Mike Ryan, the WHO’s top emergencies expert, told a news briefing in Geneva.
“He is working at home...continuing to do his job in support of the world. His testing will be depending on the arrival of symptoms or otherwise.”
WHO director-General Tedros said on Sunday he had been identified as a contact of someone who tested positive for Covid-19, but added that he was feeling well and did not have any symptoms.
Governments in Europe face a “very, very difficult situation” in controlling rising numbers of Covid-19 cases as their citizens grow weary with renewed restrictions on daily life, the World Health Organization’s top emergencies expert said.
“Clearly people are frustrated, and have every right to be frustrated, and they are fatigued,” Mike Ryan told a regular WHO news briefing in Geneva.
“But governments, particularly in Europe, are facing a very, very difficult situation. We need to push this virus down, take the heat out of this epidemic. Their options are limited.”
Footage of a pianist in Barcelona playing a rendition of the Bangles’ hit Eternal Flame amid the sound of explosions, wailing sirens and protesters has gone viral on social media.
Peter William Geddes, who was playing in Plaça Nova on 31 October, said as the violence escalated in the background he felt peaceful: “When I play I am very calm. No nerves.”
Anti-lockdown protests have been escalating across Europe as many countries head into more stringent Covid-19 lockdowns.
World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the recent rise in Covid-19 cases in some countries in Europe and North America presented leaders with a “critical moment for action”.
He said:
This is another critical moment for action. Another critical moment for leaders to step up. And another critical moment for people to come together for a common purpose. Seize the opportunity, it’s not too late.
Tedros was addressing a regular WHO news briefing in Geneva from self-isolation at home after announcing on Twitter that he had been in contact with a person infected with Covid-19.
Georgian prime minister Giorgi Gakharia has tested positive for Covid-19, his press office said.
Gakharia went into self-isolation this morning after one of his bodyguards tested positive for the virus, it said in a statement.
“The prime minister feels well and will continue treatment at home,” his office said.
Georgia, a South Caucasus country of 3.7 million people, has reported a total of 42,579 Covid-19 infections and 342 deaths as of Monday.
An Egyptian NHS doctor who became critically ill after complications from contracting Covid-19 has spoken for the first time about his fears of being removed from the UK by the Home Office while he lay in his hospital bed on a ventilator.
Dr Basem Enany, a locum consultant cardiologist at York teaching hospital, had treated many coronavirus patients. He was placed on a ventilator after developing Guillain-Barré syndrome, a rare complication of Covid-19 and other viruses, which has left him partially paralysed. He can now breathe unaided but believes he has a long rehabilitation journey ahead of him. He said:
At first I had the usual symptoms of Covid – cough, fever, loss of taste and smell – but then I began to develop a weakness throughout my body. Then I was no longer able to move and couldn’t breathe properly.
I had never seen this happen in any of the Covid patients I had treated and had to research my symptoms as they were so unusual.
He has a work visa that is due to expire next month. He and his wife, Marwa Mohamed, believe they and their four young daughters could face removal from the UK as he is unlikely to be well enough by December to renew the visa.
Britain has recorded 18,950 new Covid cases and 136 deaths within 28 days of a positive test result.
The figures are lower than the daily figures reported last week, although health officials often say that fewer cases and deaths are registered at the weekend.
British prime minister Boris Johnson defended a second Covid lockdown in England from critics who said it was unnecessary and others who said it was too late, arguing now was the time to prevent a “medical and moral disaster”.
After rejecting calls last month for a new national lockdown, Johnson U-turned on Saturday, announcing new restrictions across England would begin on Thursday and last until 2 December.
Britain, which has the highest official Covid-19 death toll in Europe, is grappling with more than 20,000 new cases a day. Scientists have warned a worst-case scenario of 80,000 dead could be exceeded this winter.
But the British prime minister has come under fire from all sides - from those in his Conservative party who see the measures as draconian and others who have long been urging government to introduce a national lockdown.
“We are fighting a disease... When the data changes, of course we must change course too,” he told parliament, setting out to lawmakers that action was needed to avoid a “medical and moral disaster” when hospitals could be overrun.
Defending his earlier measures to try to limit lockdown measures to those areas suffering from the highest infection rates, he said he had not been too slow in reacting as the number of cases spiralled across England.
“In fact we are moving to national measures when the rate both of deaths and infections for instance is lower than they were in France,” he said.
Saturday’s announcement is subject to a vote on Wednesday which will expose Johnson to a rebellion from Conservative party MPs who reject the need for a national lockdown.
Some Conservatives fear the long term economic damage caused by the lockdown will outweigh the health risks of allowing businesses to stay open, and that there are wider risks to mental health and an erosion of civil liberties from lockdowns.
But to soften the blow, he said he would double support for the self-employed and said when the measures expired on 2 Decembers, MPs would have a vote on a way forward.
Britain has reported 46,717 Covid-19 deaths - defined as those dying within 28 days of a positive test. A broader measure of those with Covid-19 on their death certificates puts the toll at 58,925.
Essential shops, schools and universities in England will remain open but pubs and restaurants will be shut except for takeaways. Outbound international travel is banned except for essential reasons including work and non-essential retail will close.
The opposition Labour party has offered its support to the government, meaning there is little chance of Johnson losing the parliamentary vote. But, after Johnson rejected Labour’s call for a lockdown, their votes will come alongside heavy criticism.
“Rejecting the advice of his own scientists for 40 days was a catastrophic failure of leadership and of judgement,” Labour leader Keir Starmer said.
The rest of the UK - Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - have their own lockdown policies and enacted tougher health restrictions last month.
Updated
Restaurants and shopkeepers in Geneva prepared to close in line with new Covid-19 measures on Monday, that go beyond more lenient Swiss rules elsewhere, as its main hospital fills up and prepares to begin airlifting out patients to less burdened cantons.
Mindful of the economic pain caused by stricter measures in the spring, Switzerland’s federal government has charted a different course from neighbours France and Germany in reaction to surging case numbers, seeking to avoid heavy lockdowns.
However, Geneva plans to go further as new Covid cases exceed 1,000 per day in a canton of 500,000 - one of the highest rates of infection by population density in Europe. The canton of Neuchâtel will adopt similar measures on Wednesday.
In a sign of the deteriorating situation, the Geneva-based World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday that he had been identified as the contact of a Covid-19 positive person.
Gatherings have been limited to five people from 6pm GMT although some exceptions apply and, unlike the spring, schools remain open.
Geneva university hospital’s director Bertrand Levrat described the situation at the hospital as “dramatic” and said it expected to soon begin a helicopter transfer service for Covid patients.
Geneva hosts a United Nations office as well as the World Trade Organization, which is due to hold a key meeting on its new head next week. At least 34 Covid cases have been reported among UN staff since mid-October.
Fresh lockdowns to stem the spread of the coronavirus have sparked sometimes violent protests in several European countries, fuelled both by ideological fury at new government-imposed restrictions and fears of economic hardship, writes Jon Henley, the Guardian’s Europe correspondent.
As the number of infections surge and hospitals and intensive care units fill up, countries including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain have once more introduced tough curbs on movement and gatherings.
But the measures are stirring resistance, not just among libertarians who see them as an assault on personal freedom and conspiracy theorists who say the virus is a hoax, but from business owners and independent workers worried for their future.
The protests suggest mounting dissatisfaction with governments’ responses to the pandemic and, amid a growing realisation that it will last for some time yet, alarm at the economic consequences even in countries such as Germany and France, where generous economic safety nets are functioning relatively well.
Eleven players from Amsterdam’s Ajax football club have tested positive for coronavirus, a day before their Champions League tie against Danish side FC Midtjylland on Tuesday.
RTL Nieuws, which reported the infections, said the club had not disclosed the names of the affected players.
The International Monetary Fund has called on richer countries to maintain and increase high spending on support for workers and businesses hit by the coronavirus crisis, even at the risk of increasing budget deficits.
Premature withdrawal of fiscal support at a time of continued high rates of unemployment would “impose further harm on livelihoods and heighten the likelihood of widespread bankruptcies, which in turn could jeopardise the recovery,” senior IMF officials said in a blog published on Monday. They go on:
In such a scenario, the scars from the crisis would likely become much deeper. Where possible, economies should therefore resist tightening fiscal policy too early and instead ensure continued support for healthcare, individuals, and firms. In economies constrained in their ability to spend, a reprioritisation of spending may be warranted to protect the most vulnerable.
The rate of increase in coronavirus infections in Belgium, the European country worst hit, per capita, by the pandemic, has slowed, the government said on Monday.
But officials said it was too early to say that the country’s second wave has peaked. New restrictions went into effect on Monday, aimed at averting a breakdown of the country’s healthcare system.
Yves Van Laethem, spokesman for the health ministry, said:
The number of infections and admissions to hospital continues to rise, but less rapidly. So we can say that while the high-speed train is still running, it is slowing a little.
The country of 11 million, home to the headquarters of the European Union and the Nato military bloc, has Europe’s worst infection rate and one of its highest mortality rates, according to official data.
Reuters quoted Van Laethem as telling a news conference that the daily average of new infections over the past seven days was 15,582, an increase of 14% from the previous week but a slowdown from last month, when roughly a doubling each week became the norm.
In the capital, Brussels, there was a week-on-week decline.
Still, Belgium reported a cumulative 1,735 infections per 100,000 inhabitants over the 14 days to Nov. 2, more than twice as many as in neighbouring France, according to European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control data.
The new restrictions to slow the spread of infections, which will be in effect for six weeks, severely limit social contacts and have closed businesses such as hairdressers and shops that provide non-essential services.
However, the government has stopped short of confining people to their homes, as it did during the first wave in the spring and as other European countries have done in recent days.
A new study suggests that cellular (T-cell) immunity against the virus that causes Covid-19 is likely to be present within most adults six months after primary infection, with levels considerably higher in patients with symptoms, writes Natalie Grover, Guardian science correspondent.
The data offers another piece of the puzzle that could be key to understanding whether previous Sars-CoV-2 infections – the virus behind Covid-19 – can prevent reinfection, and if so, for how long.
The study, led by the UK coronavirus immunology consortium, evaluated 100 non-hospitalised healthcare workers in March and April after antibody responses were detected in them. It is yet to be peer-reviewed.
It is the first study to offer data on T-cell levels six months after infection in people with mild or asymptomatic disease that is likely to represent the majority of infections, the authors say.
Hullo, this is Damien Gayle leaping on the controls for a little while, while Jessica Murray has a break.
Strategies for exiting spring lockdowns in Europe did not work, and goodwill leached away, allowing infection rates to rise, writes science journalist Laura Spinney.
From the outside, it might seem the continent is in the grip of a second wave that is ramping rapidly towards its peak. But it is not one wave, it’s many local waves, and that is crucial in understanding how to rein it in and prevent the same thing happening again.
The American public health expert Anthony Fauci said recently that the US was still grappling with the first wave of the pandemic, and the same could be said of Europe. European nations just dented it more profoundly in the spring.
The view of health experts now is that, for various reasons, Europe’s strategy for exiting its spring lockdowns failed.
Either politicians ignored their advice, or the systems weren’t in place to implement it correctly.
People’s goodwill and trust leached away as the pandemic dragged on, and when those experts started calling for stronger measures again this autumn – and the same exit strategy as before – politicians were even less willing to listen.
More than 3.6 million Slovaks took part in nationwide coronavirus testing scheme over the past weekend, and 38,359 or 1.06% tested positive, prime minister Igor Matovič said.
The central European country of 5.5 million used antigen tests, which return results in 15-30 minutes but are less accurate than standard PCR tests, in an attempt to identify a large portion of infected people, which the government argued could help avoid a hard lockdown.
Updated
Kosovo has reimposed curfews for elderly citizens and tightened business hours as it tries to quell a rising coronavirus caseload, the government announced Monday.
One of Europe’s poorest areas, Kosovo is the first country in the Western Balkans to return to such restrictions on social life, unseen since the start of the pandemic in early spring.
Under the new measures pensioners over 65 will only be allowed out of their homes from 6am to 10am and from 4pm to 7pm.
Get-togethers of more than five people in public places are also banned, including “seminars, workshops, weddings, and family parties”, the government said.
Shopping malls and restaurants will be required to close at 9pm, except for takeaway services.
Officials have warned that Kosovo’s already weak and understaffed healthcare system could collapse if infections continue at the rate seen in recent weeks.
In total, some 700 people have died among the population of 1.8 million.
Neighbouring Serbia, Bosnia, North Macedonia and Croatia have also been logging record case numbers in recent weeks, but so far none have imposed strict containment measures to stop the spread.
A growing number of Russians are unwilling to be inoculated against Covid-19 once a vaccine becomes widely available, the Levada Centre, Russia’s only major independent pollster, has said.
The poll showed that 59% of participants would decline a vaccine as of 20 October, up from 54% two months earlier.
Russia is beginning to roll out a vaccine, known as Sputnik V, against Covid-19 for domestic use despite the fact that late-stage trials of the vaccine are still ongoing.
Small numbers of people in high-risk professions are being inoculated, but mass vaccination of the general public is still some way away as Russia deals with the challenge of ramping up production of doses.
President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia hopes to start mass inoculations by the end of the year.
Almost two-thirds of the 1,600 Russians surveyed across 50 regions, however, told Levada that if given the option to be vaccinated voluntarily and for free, they would refuse. Just 36% of them said they would agree to be vaccinated.
It’s a stark contrast to the global average, as registered in a poll of 13,000 people across 19 countries around the same time. It reported that 71.5% of people polled would be very or somewhat likely to accept a Covid-19 vaccine.
In the Levada poll, 64% of Russians said they were either definitely afraid of catching coronavirus or more afraid than not, and 92% reported wearing masks in public places.
Though 62% said they either fully or mostly supported measures taken by their local authorities to tackle the pandemic, 61% also said they did not trust government reports of the number of people who have been infected, saying these were either artificially low or artificially high.
Moscow is setting up a large network of vaccination rooms and 2,500 Muscovites in the high-risk category - mainly doctors and teachers - have already been vaccinated, the city’s deputy mayor was cited as saying last week.
A trial set to involve 40,000 people in total in the capital began in early September. Around 9,000 Moscow residents have received both shots of the two-dose Sputnik V so far, the vaccine’s developers who are running the trial said last week.
New tougher measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 across England will automatically expire on 2 December and lawmakers will vote on what happens next, a spokesman for British prime minister Boris Johnson said.
Johnson announced more stringent measures for England on Saturday, prompting some of his Conservative lawmakers to protest that the move was too draconian and threatened the wellbeing of many people.
“These regulations will automatically expire ahead of Wednesday 2 December and MPs (members of parliament) will have a vote on the proposed way forward,” the spokesman told reporters.
Germany is still some way off an end to the coronavirus pandemic, chancellor Angela Merkel has said, adding that Germans will have to limit their contact with each other during the winter months.
“Throughout the winter months, we will have to limit private contacts,” she told a news conference. “The light at the end of the tunnel is still quite a long way off.”
She said citizens will have a bearable December if new lockdown measures introduced on Monday work, adding that much of the success of the measures depends on the participation and understanding of citizens.
Merkel told a news conference that if people respected the restrictions over the next four weeks “to curb the spread of the virus, then we will be able to have the conditions for a tolerable December”.
Updated
Coronavirus infections fall for third day straight in the Netherlands
The number of new coronavirus infections in the Netherlands rose by nearly 8,300 over the past 24 hours, the slowest pace in roughly two weeks,
The National Institute for Public Health said the number of confirmed new cases of Covid-19 was 8,286, compared with a record high of 11,119 on 20 October.
The number is being closely watched by the Dutch government, which is expected to announce tighter curbs on Tuesday.
NL Times reports the slowing infection rate, along with the fact that hospitalisations are rising slower than predicted, will be cited as examples the country’s 19-day partial lockdown is working.
It said it is predicted that despite the improvement, restrictions will still be tightened, with the closure of museums, theatres and cinemas.
Restaurants, cafes and bars have been shut since 14 October, and have only been permitted to serve takeaway food.
Updated
Italy's coronavirus strategy is 'wasting time', says scientific advisor
A scientific advisor to Italy’s health ministry has warned the government is “wasting time” amid political wrangling over further coronavirus restrictions.
Italy is working towards measures that could include a national 9pm curfew, a ban on inter-regional travel and the closure of shopping malls at weekends.
But scientists have for weeks been urging the government to take tougher action, such as imposing local lockdowns, as infections escalate and hospitals come under strain.
Walter Ricciardi, the health ministry adviser, told the Guardian:
Like in other European countries, politicians haven’t had the courage to make prompt decisions at the right time.
Now, with every hour that passes we are moving even further towards a national lockdown. Time is being wasted.
Addressing parliament on Monday, prime minister Giuseppe Conte said the proposed new rules, which are expected to include the closure of museums, needed to be enforced by Wednesday as the pandemic is “racing inexorably” across Europe and deteriorating in Italy.
He said intensive care capacity would be at risk in 15 of Italy’s 20 regions within a month, and that the country was heading towards a ‘scenario 4’ situation, at which point a complete lockdown would be needed.
However, he has so far stopped short of ordering another national lockdown, leaving it up to regional leaders to impose one in areas badly affected, such as Lombardy in the north and Campania in the south.
But this has provoked a battle as regional governors shy away from making unpopular decisions amid growing protest against restrictions.
Ricciardi last week came under fire for suggesting that Milan and Naples be put under lockdown as it was possible to contract Covid-19 in either of the densely-populated cities just by walking into a bar.
Italy’s daily infection tally fell below 30,000 on Sunday after reaching a record 31,758 on Saturday. However, over 30,000 fewer swab tests were carried out. There were 208 more fatalities recorded on Sunday.
Almost 19,000 people are in hospital with Covid-19 across Italy, of whom 1,939 are in intensive care. Italian media reported in October that the government would evaluate another national lockdown if intensive care admissions eclipsed a 2,300 threshold.
Doctors’ associations across the country have also warned of severe shortages of health workers to deal with the pandemic’s second wave.
“The problem with the second wave isn’t so much intensive care right now,” added Ricciardi.
“The problem is general hospital wards are filling up [to the point] where we won’t be able to hospitalise anymore people. And over time this will affect intensive care. Then there is the issue of doctors and nurses becoming infected, further weakening the system.”
Updated
Medical students, retired nurses, volunteers and Prague’s mayor have heeded a call to help Czech hospitals battle one of Europe’s highest coronavirus infection rates that is straining the healthcare system.
With beds around 70% occupied, hospitals in the nation of 10.7 million have turned to volunteers to free up full-time health workers to care for more seriously ill patients.
“Medical students are taking the work because a lot of nurses are sick or in quarantine so we basically do the nursing stuff for patients in hospital or work in the Covid centres,” said David Antos, 23, while on a break at a testing centre at a Prague hospital staffed by fellow students.
The government in October imposed tough restrictions, including school closures, a curfew and shutting bars and restaurants, to limit social contact after officials warned hospital capacity could run out in November.
As of Friday, almost 3,000 doctors and 7,400 nurses were out of action due to Covid-19, up from around 600 and 1,000 respectively at the beginning of October.
Petr Arenberger, director of Prague’s Vinohrady hospital, said his facility had drafted 150 medical students and would need a further 150 volunteers in the next two weeks.
The Czech Republic has reported on average nearly 12,000 cases a day over the last week and has Europe’s highest per capita number of Covid-19 deaths, with 18.8 per 100,000 over the last two weeks. Belgium is second with 11.3.
The number of Covid-19 hospitalisations increased seven-fold in October to 7,370 with those in a serious condition jumping six-fold to 1,156.
Prague mayor Zdeněk Hřib, a doctor by training, is helping to examine patients.
“I firmly hope that this can motivate others who could help at hospitals,” said Hrib, who last used his medical training during his internship 15 years ago.
The Czech Red Cross has begun courses for hospital volunteers with little or no healthcare experience.
“Even an amateur can learn relatively quickly and can help the system by doing such work instead of the professionals,” said Red Cross emergency response unit chief Richard Smejkal, adding his organisation had trained 350 people so far and received 2,300 applications.
Greece will impose a two-week lockdown in the regions of Thessaloniki and Serres in the north to contain a resurgence in Covid-19 cases.
The country has reported fewer cases of the coronavirus than most in Europe, but it has seen a significant increase in infections since early October.
The latest measures include the suspension of flights to and from Thessaloniki over the two-week period, which will come into effect on Tuesday along with the expansion of a night-time curfew on movement and the closure of restaurants and bars in the most populous areas of the country for one month.
Greece registered 1,678 new infections on Sunday, bringing the total number of cases in the country so far to 40,929 since February. The country has recorded 635 Covid-19 deaths.
The Italian government is going to tighten restrictions to limit the spread of Covid-19, but is holding back from re-introducing a blanket, nationwide lockdown, prime minister Giuseppe Conte has said.
Addressing parliament, Conte said more stringent measures, including curbing travel between the worst-hit regions and introducing a nighttime curfew, were now needed given the recent resurgence of the virus.
He said the country would be divided into three areas depending on the risk level.
He warned that intensive care units would be overwhelmed in 15 of Italy’s 20 regions by next month unless action was taken, and said certain places faced tougher restrictions than others.
Iran reports record high Covid death toll as travel bans go into force
Iran has reported a record 440 Covid deaths in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll to 35,738 as a ban on travel in and out of major cities came into force.
The government has shut schools, mosques, shops and restaurants in most of the country since early October and on Monday imposed a four-day ban on travel in and out of 25 cities, including Tehran, state TV reported.
Iranian state media said the government will make a decision on a two-week lockdown in the capital.
Health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 8,289 Covid-19 cases had been registered in the previous 24 hours, taking the national tally to 628,780.
The head of Iran’s Medical Council, Mohammadreza Zafarghandi, doubted the official toll on Sunday and warned that Iran had reached a “catastrophic mortality rate”, the Students News Agency ISNA reported.
The official death toll is only based on the number of registered patients.
Through field surveys in hospitals and cemeteries, our council has obtained a figure at least three times higher than the official death toll.
The medical council is a non-governmental organisation that is responsible for licensing doctors in Iran.
Updated
French supermarkets will face the same limits on selling non-essential goods as small shops but business owners are not allowed to challenge the government’s new Covid lockdown rules, the finance minister said.
Small shopowners have complained bitterly about being forced to close while supermarkets can sell “non-essential goods” such as shoes, clothes, beauty products and flowers because they also sell food.
Prime minister Jean Castex said on Sunday supermarkets will have to stop selling non-essential goods, but shopkeepers - who have stocked up for Christmas and want to recover from the spring lockdown - want to remain open and mayors in several cities across France have backed them.
“Challenging the state with municipal decrees is irresponsible. One cannot challenge the state’s authority and jeopardise the health of our compatriots,” finance minister Bruno Le Maire said on RTL radio.
He added that once the rate of infection slows, some shops may be allowed to open under certain conditions such as by appointment only. A decision will be taken on 12 November.
Meanwhile, supermarkets will face the same bans on selling non-essential products as small shops and will not be allowed to sell products such as shoes, clothing and flowers, he said.
Le Maire also said that overcrowding in supermarkets was unacceptable and that they would have to stick to the rule of a maximum of one person per four square metres, or 250 people in a 1,000 square metre supermarket.
The French lobby for small and medium-sized enterprises, CPME, said closing the non-food aisles of supermarkets is a short-term solution and asked for local authorities to be given the power to let shops open if health precautions are taken.
“We do not want the only winners to be the international e-commerce platforms, who do not play by the rules, notably on taxes,” CPME said.
Asked about regulating online retailer Amazon, Le Maire said France would collect tax on the giant internet firms in 2020 and would fight for a European tax initiative on online firms for early 2021.
Conservative member of parliament Yves Hemedinger said he would table a bill to let non-food retailers remain open.
Updated
Malaysia’s prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin has ordered a review of regulations on social and sports activities, seeking stricter curbs amid a rise in coronavirus cases.
In a Facebook post, Muhyiddin said the matter will be discussed by the national security council on Tuesday, and that a decision would hopefully be made immediately.
Malaysia reported 834 new coronavirus cases on Monday, taking the total to 33,339 infections.
Coronavirus infections in Switzerland have risen by 21,926 since Friday morning, after the government last week tightened restrictions meant to slow the accelerating spread of Covid-19.
Total confirmed cases in Switzerland and neighbouring principality Liechtenstein increased to 176,177 and the death toll rose by 93 to 2,130, while hospitalisations swelled by nearly 500.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, taking over the blog for the next few hours.
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Germany begins 'light lockdown'
Germany goes into “lockdown light” mode today, as the country’s disease control agency recorded 12,097 new confirmed Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours.
Bars, cinemas, theatres, museums, fitness studios and swimming pools will remain closed from today, while cafes and restaurants are allowed to offer takeaway food only.
Meetings in public are restricted to two households and no more than 10 people. Unlike during the first lockdown in the spring, schools and nurseries will stay open.
While the new “wavebreaker” restrictions will for now only apply until the end of the month, Angela Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, has said it cannot be ruled out that the soft lockdown could last longer. On Sunday, health minister Jens Spahn called on the public to prepare for “months of restrictions and abstinence”.
One positive trend among the latest coronavirus numbers in Germany is that the case fatality rate is lower than in the spring, and on Monday fell below 2 today for the first time since mid-April.
However, the head of the association of German hospitals, Gerald Gaß, warned in an interview with tabloid Bild that that trend could be reversed in two to three weeks’ time, when the number of patients in intensive care is expected to surpass its April peak.
While Germany has spare capacity for about 6,000 high-care patients, there are concerns about a future lack of staff to attend those on emergency care beds.
Updated
German defence minister self-isolating
German defence minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer is self-quarantining after learning that she came into contact with a person who tested positive for Covid-19, her ministry said today.
A coronavirus test on Kramp-Karrenbauer herself was negative, it added in a statement.
Updated
Malaysia’s health ministry reported 834 new coronavirus cases today, taking its total to 33,339 infections.
The south-east Asian country also recorded two new deaths, raising total fatalities from the pandemic to 251
Updated
Indonesia has today reported 2,618 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of infections to 415,402, data from the country’s Covid-19 taskforce showed.
This is the lowest daily rise of coronavirus cases since 26 August.
It also reported 101 deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 14,044. An additional 3,624 people had recovered from the virus, taking the total number of recovered cases to 345,566.
Updated
The Philippines’ health ministry today reported 2,298 new coronavirus infections and 32 more deaths.
In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases had increased to 385,400, while deaths had reached 7,269. The Philippines has the second-highest number of confirmed Covid-19 infections and deaths in Southeast Asia behind Indonesia.
Ireland-based airline Ryanair said it is preparing for a “hugely challenging” period to continue as it reported a loss of €197m (£178m) in the first half of the year.
The low-cost carrier said it “expects to record higher losses” in the second half of the year, despite having a lower cost base and a stronger balance sheet.
Coronavirus led to the grounding of 99% of the carrier’s fleet for almost four months between mid-March and the end of June. The company said traffic in the first half of the year fell from 86 million to 17 million passengers, compared with the same period last year – a fall of about 80%.
Its revenue dropped 78% to €1.18bn, while the loss in this half-year contrasts with a profit after tax of €1.15bn in the first half of the last financial year.
With almost no traffic in the first quarter of the year, the “vast majority” of the first half of the year’s revenue was earned in the second quarter, the firm said.
It added:
Given the current Covid-19 uncertainty, Ryanair cannot provide FY21 PAT (profit after tax) guidance at this time.
The group expects to carry approximately 38 million passengers in FY21, although this guidance could be further revised downwards if EU Govts continue to mismanage air travel and impose more uncoordinated travel restrictions or lock downs this winter.
Updated
Thousands of lives in England would have been saved if the government had imposed a two-week “circuit-break” lockdown when advised to by experts in September, a leading medical figure has said.
Prof Andrew Hayward, professor of infectious diseases epidemiology at University College London, and a member of the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) advisory committee, also said such a move would also have caused less damage to the economy than the four-week lockdown outlined by the government on Saturday.
Asked what difference it would have made if the government had taken the advice of the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), Hayward, speaking in a personal capacity, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:
Well, we can’t turn back the clock. But, I think if we had chosen a two-week circuit-break at that time we would definitely have saved thousands of lives.
And, we would clearly have inflicted substantially less damage on our economy than the proposed four-week lockdown will do.
Hayward was at the meeting of Sage on 21 September that recommended a circuit-break around half term.
Russia today reported 18,257 new coronavirus cases, including 4,796 in Moscow, pushing the national tally to 1,655,038 since the pandemic began.
Authorities said 238 people had died in the last 24 hours, taking the death toll to 28,473.
Updated
In England, the prime minister, Boris Johnson, will today warn that coronavirus deaths over the winter could be twice as high as during the first wave of the pandemic when he outlines plans for a second national lockdown to MPs.
Johnson is set to use a statement to the House of Commons this afternoon to say there is “no alternative” but to impose four weeks of stringent restrictions across England to control rising cases.
It comes amid confusion over whether the measures could be extended beyond 2 December, after Cabinet Office minister Michael Gove admitted they may need to be in place for longer.
Johnson will tell MPs the government will “seek to ease” restrictions and return to the tiered system on 2 December. A No 10 source insisted the measures would be “time-limited” for four weeks.
The prime minister was forced to announce the lockdown – which comes into effect on Thursday – at a hastily arranged press conference in Downing Street over the weekend after details were leaked to newspapers.
The measures will see pubs, bars, restaurants and non-essential retail closed for four weeks, but schools, colleges and nurseries will remain open.
People will also be allowed to exercise and socialise in outdoor public spaces with their household or one other person.
The prime minister will seek to face down growing unrest from backbench Conservative MPs over the new restrictions when he tells the Commons there is no option but to impose them.
He is expected to say:
Models of our scientists suggest that unless we act now, we could see deaths over the winter that are twice as bad or more compared with the first wave.
Faced with these latest figures, there is no alternative but to take further action at a national level.
I know some in the House believe we should have reached this decision earlier, but I believe it was right to try every possible option to get this virus under control at a local level, with strong local action and strong local leadership.
MPs will debate and vote on the new measures on Wednesday, with several Conservatives likely to rebel against the government.
Updated
Schools throughout Cambodia have reopened today for the first time since March but with class sizes and hours limited by coronavirus precautions.
Education minister Hang Chuon Naron said a second closing would be considered if any students became infected while attending classes.
A trial phase of reopenings for some schools in the capital, Phnom Penh, and parts of eastern Cambodia started last month, and Hang Chuon Naron said the good results prompted the approval for reopenings nationwide. He told reporters at a school in Phnom Penh:
As the government has controlled the Covid situation very well, we have seen that in Cambodia the number of cases has not increased, and especially the border control is every effective.
In addition to the limits on class sizes and hours, school buses, libraries, physical education and art activities and canteens will resume under the Health Ministry’s rules covering coronavirus safety. Hang Chuon Naron said:
We have two objectives. Number one is safety for our students, our teachers, as well as the community, and number two is to continue education for everyone.
Cambodia has reported 292 cases of coronavirus infection, with no deaths. The health ministry reported one new case today – a Cambodian returning from abroad.
Updated
The Czech Republic has reported 6,542 new coronavirus cases for yesterday and 178 new deaths, health ministry data showed today.
The total number of cases in the country of 10.7 million rose to 341,644, while deaths reached 3,429.
Updated
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That’s it from me for today. It’s over to my colleague Haroon Siddique in London for the latest.
The full story now on US President Donald Trump threatening to fire Dr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, during a midnight rally in Florida 24 hours before the presidential election.
As crowds at the Miami Opa-Locka airport chanted “Fire Fauci”, Trump allowed the chants to continue for several seconds before responding: “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election. I appreciate the advice. I appreciate it.”
He continued: “Nah, he’s been wrong on a lot. He’s a nice man though. He’s been wrong on a lot.”
Fauci, one of the world’s foremost infectious diseases experts, has served for over three decades as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID). He is one of the lead experts on Trump’s coronavirus taskforce and has frequently offered frank public health guidance in contrast to the president’s repeated falsehoods on the severity of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Trump’s rally in Florida, a critical swing state he needs to hold to win the election, was held as Covid-19 cases in the state continued to surge. Like countless Trump campaign rallies there was no social distancing and thousands of attendees did not wear face masks:
Here is today’s roundup of the top global coronavirus news:
Global aviation manual expected in November
A global aviation manual now under review by a UN body and expected in November, suggests global guidelines calling for the use of tests with a sensitivity and specificity of 95% when screening passengers to detect the novel coronavirus ahead of flights, three sources familiar with the matter told Reuters.
WHO’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan said on Friday that travelling was now “relatively safe” and posed a “relatively low” health risk although there was no “zero risk”. More advice on risk management processes would be released soon, he added.
Japan’s largest airport on Monday opened a novel coronavirus testing facility aimed at outbound travellers who need proof they are virus-free, as it takes steps to reopen international travel that has been largely grounded for months by the pandemic.
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours.
- World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday that he had been identified as a contact of someone who tested positive for Covid-19, but added that he was feeling well and did not have any symptoms. Tedros said in a tweet that he would be self-quarantining “over the coming days”.
- US President Donald Trump threatened to fire the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci. At Trump’s rally in Florida, a “Fire Fauci” chant broke out when Trump defended his handling of coronavirus. Anthony Fauci, a highly respected member of his coronavirus task force, has been increasingly critical of Trump’s handling of the virus. In response to the “Fire Fauci” chant, Trump said: “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election.”
- Trump broke a curfew at rally in Miami-Dade county. Trump spoke until well after midnnight in Miami-Dade county, breaking a midnight coronavirus cufew intended to mitigate infections.
- Japan has used new technology to determine if large crowds can watch sports events in safety, less than a year before Tokyo is due to host the coronavirus-postponed Olympics.
- South Korea will fine people for not wearing masks from later this month, as the country expands its rules on mandatory face coverings. Although South Korea has fared better than many other countries in containing the coronavirus outbreak, daily cases have risen to over 100 in recent days.
- The trial over the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack has been delayed for at least a week after two more defendants tested positive for coronavirus, Agence France-Presse reports.
- Brazilian health minister returns to hospital. The Brazilian health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, who is ill with Covid-19, will stay in a military hospital overnight on Sunday, after having been discharged from a civilian facility earlier in the day.
- England’s lockdown could be extended – Gove. The one-month lockdown for England announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson this weekend could be extended as Britain struggles to contain a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, Michael Gove told Sky News on Sunday.
-
The Duke of Cambridge tested positive for coronavirus in April, according to reports. The BBC said it had been told by Buckingham palace sources that Prince William had contracted Covid-19 that month.
- Brexit Party to rebrand as ‘anti-lockdown’ party, Farage says. Nigel Farage plans to rebrand the Brexit Party as an anti-lockdown party called Reform UK, the party leader has announced in an article in the Telegraph where he says “it is time to redirect our energies”.
- More than 300 Brazilians gathered on São Paulo’s main commercial thoroughfare on Sunday to protest state Governor João Doria’s support for mandatory Covid-19 immunization and testing the potential vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac.
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Iran’s true death toll is likely to be at least three times higher than the reported figure, the head of Iran’s medical council has said.
- Brazil’s health minister has been discharged from hospital. He was admitted to hospital with coronavirus and dehydration two days ago.
-
There have been a further 23,254 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data. This compares to 21,915 new cases registered on Saturday.
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Donald Trump’s campaign rallies may have led to 30,000 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19, and likely resulted in more than 700 deaths overall, according to a Stanford University paper posted online this weekend.
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Greece has reported a further 1,678 new coronavirus cases,bringing the country’s total to 40,929. It comes after a record daily increase of 2,056 was announced on Saturday.
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Geneva will impose a partial lockdown on Monday after the Swiss canton reported more than 1,000 new cases on several days.
- France reported 46,290 further coronavirus cases on Sunday,bringing the total to over 1.4 million cases. Infections rose by 35,641 the previous day.
- Slovakia tested almost half of its entire population yesterday, as part of a two-day mass testing programme designed to bring coronavirus under control without implementing further lockdown measures. Of the 2.58 millio people tested, 1% were positive and will have to quarantine.
- Russia’s daily tally of coronavirus cases hit a record high of 18,665, taking the national total to 1,636,781. Meanwhile, Iran has marked its highest daily increase in its coronavirus death toll, with 434 recorded on Saturday.
The “rapid turnaround” coronavirus tests UK prime minister Boris Johnson announced on Saturday are not approved for the public to interpret themselves without an expert’s help and so will not provide results in the promised 15 minutes, the Guardian has learned.
Boris Johnson’s briefing about this week’s national lockdown in England included the promise of a mass rollout of “tests that you can use yourself to tell whether or not you are infectious and get the result within 10 to 15 minutes”, which would be made available at universities and across whole cities.
He said the army would be deployed to roll out the “many millions of cheap, reliable and above all rapid turnaround tests” everywhere they were needed:
Hi, Helen Sullivan here. Thank you Naaman. With every syllable of that adjective I gain more strength to go on.
Updated
This is Naaman Zhou signing off from the blog. I’ll be handing it back to the indefatigable Helen Sullivan.
Japan conducts sports tests ahead of Olympics
Japan has used new technology to determine if large crowds can watch sports events in safety amid the coronavirus pandemic, less than a year before Tokyo is due to host the coronavirus-postponed Olympics.
High-precision cameras examined spectators’ movements, and the proportion who were wearing masks, over the course of three baseball matches at Yokohama Stadium from last Friday. Carbon dioxide-monitoring devices and wind-speed measuring machines were installed to gauge how saliva droplets spread when spectators wearing masks shouted, and ate and drank.
On Friday, up to 16,000 people were permitted to enter the 34,000-seat stadium to watch the Yokohama DeNA BayStars play the Hanshin Tigers, with the maximum raised to 80% of capacity on Saturday and 100% for the third and final game on Sunday.
Reports said the number of fans fell short of the total target, with some apparently choosing to stay away amid signs of a slight uptick in cases in Japan. The country has recorded just over 100,000 Covid-19 infections and about 1,750 deaths - a relatively low number in a country of 126 million people.
The choice of Yokohama Stadium was no coincidence: it will be the main venue for softball and baseball matches at next summer’s Games, which are due to open on 23 July.
“We will report our findings here to the government,” said Kiyotaka Eguchi, a local government official. “The information we get here will be reflected in [government] guidelines, and that will also be used for the next year’s Olympics and professional baseball.”
Fans entering the stadium were asked to install a contact-tracing app so they can be notified if they came into contact with or sat near someone who later tested positive for the virus.
They were asked not to cheer loudly during the matches, while staff approached fans who were not wearing masks to cover their faces, local media accounts said. Older people and those with pre-existing health conditions were asked not to attend.
Data from the trial will be combined with simulations carried out by the supercomputer Fugaku, and could help the government decide whether to relax current limits on the number of people allowed to attend sporting and other big events.
Currently, no more than 50% of seats can be filled in venues with a capacity of over 10,000, although that ceiling, which will remain in place until the end of the month, did not apply during the recent baseball trial.
Trump threatens to fire Dr Fauci after election
And more from that ongoing Trump rally that is now in violation of a local coronavirus curfew in Florida.
Trump has just told a crowd that he may fire the US’s leading expert on his coronavirus task force, Dr Anthony Fauci.
After a chant of “Fire Fauci” broke out during the rally, Trump responded: “Don’t tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election.
“I appreciate the advice,” he added.
After he bathes in a "Fire Fauci" chant for 18 seconds, President Trump says, "Don't tell anybody, but let me wait until a little bit after the election." pic.twitter.com/DBb9kyaFhU
— David Gura (@davidgura) November 2, 2020
Updated
Global death toll passes 1.2 million
A sad milestone has just been passed – as the world has officially recorded more than 1.2 million fatalities from Covid-19,
1,200,361 people have now died from the disease, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The US leads the death toll with 230,972 deaths, followed by Brazil (160,074) and India (122,607).
Trump breaks coronavirus curfew at Florida rally
US president Donald Trump is currently speaking past a coronavirus curfew intended to mitigate infections in Florida, as he hosts a rally in Miami-Dade county.
The county has a nightly curfew that comes into effect at midnight. But Trump’s rally is still going on past the witching hour, with thousands of supporters in attendance.
With 25 mins left til Miami-Dade’s midnight curfew goes into effect, Pres. Trump has landed in Opa-Locka. pic.twitter.com/mZtoX6LcwO
— Bianca Padró Ocasio (@BiancaJoanie) November 2, 2020
“Is there any place you would rather be than a Trump rally? We got a lot of rich people here, lotta money,” says Trump at his rally that is now breaking Miami-Dade curfew.
— Bianca Padró Ocasio (@BiancaJoanie) November 2, 2020
In Montenegro, huge crowds have attended the funeral for the head of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Montenegro in violation of coronavirus-fighting restrictions.
Associated Press report that thousands gathered outside the main temple in the capital, Podgorica, for the liturgy and the burial of Bishop Amfilohije. Authorities said the bishop died Friday after contracting the virus weeks ago.
The head of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Irinej, led the prayers inside the packed church joined by dozens of officials and the clergy. Many of those inside the church did not wear protective face masks or keep social distance from each other.
Montenegro recently has seen a surge in virus cases and authorities have been struggling to contain the spread.
In an illustration of the bishop’s popularity, thousands have paid their respects since Saturday, passing by an open casket with his body. Many kissed the bishop’s remains, prompting an appeal from doctors to close the coffin.
Updated
Earlier today, White House coronavirus adviser Scott Atlas apologised for giving an interview to Russia’s Kremlin-backed television station RT, saying he was unaware the outlet was a registered foreign agent in the United States.
Atlas, a neuroradiologist and member of the White House coronavirus task force, appeared on the channel on Saturday and criticised coronavirus lockdowns measures, calling them an “epic failure” at stopping the virus’ spread.
“I recently did an interview with RT and was unaware they are a registered foreign agent,” Atlas wrote on Twitter. “I regret doing the interview and apologise for allowing myself to be taken advantage of.
“I especially apologise to the national security community who is working hard to defend us,” Atlas said.
In Australia, a group of artists have put together a map of the abandoned artistic projects for 2020:
South Korea to fine people without masks
South Korea will fine people for not wearing masks from later this month, as the country expands its rules on mandatory face coverings.
Although South Korea has fared better than many other countries in containing the coronavirus outbreak, daily cases have risen to over 100 in recent days.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported 124 new cases on Saturday, the fifth day in a row infections had exceeded 100. The agency said clusters had emerged in places such as schools and care homes, and at small family gatherings.
The country had recorded a total of 26,732 Covid-19 cases and 468 deaths as of Monday morning.
In response, mandatory mask wearing - already in place in 12 “high-risk” venues such as clubs and karaoke bars - will be expanded from 7 November to 23 additional places, including spas, wedding halls, department stores, theme parks and hair salons.
From 13 November, anyone not wearing a mask in those places faces a fine of up to 100,000 won (£68), while the venues’ operators could be fined as much as 3 million won.
South Korean officials warned against complacency despite the country’s relatively low case numbers. “A prolonged Covid-19 outbreak is inevitable until treatments and vaccines are developed,” the health minister, Park Neung-hoo, said.
Mainland China has reported 24 new cases of Covid-19 for Sunday, including 21 found in people arriving from overseas. The three local cases were all reported in the Xinjiang region where health officials have said they are going to start a second round of testing the entire population of Kashgar city as well as two adjacent counties, Reuters reported.
Following an outbreak which was sourced back to a 17-year-old factory worker, authorities tested more than 4.75m people, finding mostly asymptomatic cases. The outbreak itself sparked concern that it was linked to alleged forced labour programs in the region.
The decision to launch a second round of testing is interesting given just last week China’s chief epidemiologist had criticised recent decisions by various city authorities to test whole populations despite opposition from experts. Speaking after Qingdao tested more than 11 million people in five days after 12 cases were linked to a local hospital, Wu Zunyou said it was “overkill”.
Wu said the mass tests might be reassuring to residents and officials but “when tests expanded and no cases were found… the social cost was too big and unnecessary.”
Testing is expensive and last week’s sweep through Kashgar returned a rate of around 38 positive cases for every one million people tested.
Asian shares bounced off one-month lows on Monday on solid data from China showing factory activity expanded at its fastest pace in a decade, Reuters report.
Oil prices however, have fallen as many Western countries slid back into coronavirus-driven lockdowns.
All major indexes in Asia, except New Zealand, are up today. Australian shares rose 0.4%. Chinese shares are higher with the blue-chip CSI300 rising 0.8% with the country’s vast industrial sector steadily returning to levels seen before the Covid-19 pandemic paralysed huge swathes of the economy.
Japan’s Nikkei jumped 1.5%.
Charlie Hebdo trial suspended after two more defendants Covid-19 positive
The trial over the 2015 Charlie Hebdo attack has been delayed for at least a week after two more defendants tested positive for coronavirus, Agence France-Presse report.
Fourteen people are on trial accused of having helped the killers of 12 victims in the attack on satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. After primary suspect Ali Riza Polat received a Covid-19 diagnosis over the weekend, the presiding judge ordered all those on trial to be tested.
“In view of the health protocols in force requiring isolation of both positive and contact cases, the hearing will not be able to resume this week,” Regis de Jorna said in an email sent Sunday to lawyers involved in the case.
The trial had already been suspended until Wednesday following Polat’s positive diagnosis, with Jorna telling lawyers the court would not sit again until all the results were in.
Two further defendants then tested positive, with two others remaining under supervision despite negative results as they were believed to be “contact cases”, according to Jorna’s email.
The results from the other defendants, detained in Fleury-Merogis, are due Monday.
The extended suspension of the hearing will further delay the conclusion of the trial, which opened on 2 September.
Defence lawyers were scheduled to plead on November 6, 9, 10 and 11 with the verdict expected on 13 November.
France returned to lockdown last week in the latest measure to curb a disease that has infected more than 44.5 million people worldwide and killed nearly 1.2 million.
Hong Kong and Singapore are finalising details of a travel bubble, with a Hong Kong minister telling reporters people could be flying as soon as the end of this month.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Secretary for commerce and economic development Edward Yau said it was likely travel agencies could start selling tickets for the flights – expected to be at least daily – from mid-November. He said more flights could be added if it proves popular, but there would also be measures in place to quickly suspend the arrangement if either city saw a resurgence in cases.
Singapore’s transport minister Ong Ye Kung told the Straits Times they are now looking to Malaysia for the next bubble.
“But as of now, the cases in Malaysia are quite high, so I think we will have to wait and see,” he said.
Ong said Singaporean officials assessed Malaysia as taking the virus control “very seriously”.
“When the time is right I’m sure I will propose [a travel bubble] to them.”
Singapore has been reporting fewer than 20 cases a day for the last month, the vast majority of them imported. Hoping to boost its tourism industry, it has in recent weeks begun allowing visitors from several countries to apply for an Air Travel Pass, allowing entry without quarantine (pending a negative test result on arrival). Mainland China and the Australian state of Victoria were recently added to the list which already included Brunei, New Zealand, and Vietnam. Visitors are still subject to exit restrictions of their home country, however.
Hong Kong remains closed off to all non-residents, as has been the case since March. It has reported small numbers of community cases in recent days.
Brazilian health minister returns to hospital
The Brazilian health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, who is ill with Covid-19, will stay in a military hospital overnight on Sunday, after having been discharged from a civilian facility earlier in the day.
Pazuello had checked into hospital on Friday, suffering from dehydration, and left on Sunday. However, the minister has now returned to a different hospital.
In a statement, the health ministry said it was “a precautionary measure,” as reported by Reuters.
“Pazuello is well and stable and should stay resting until tomorrow,” the statement said.
The minister tested positive for coronavirus on 21 October. Roughly half of president Jair Bolsonaro’s 23-member cabinet has contracted the coronavirus, with the president and his wife coming down with the disease in July.
Brazil has the world’s second-deadliest outbreak of Covid-19, with 160,074 people killed, second to only the United States, according to a Reuters tally.
Earlier today, mainland China reported 24 new Covid-19 for Sunday, which was the same as a day earlier.
Reuters reports that the country’s National Health Commission said 21 of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas and three were local infections reported in the northwestern Xinjiang region.
The commission also reported 30 new asymptomatic cases, compared with no such cases reported a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed cases in mainland China now stands at 86,021, while the death toll remains unchanged at 4,634.
In Australia, the state supreme court of Victoria has dismissed a legal challenge to the state’s curfew during its coronavirus lockdown.
The legal challenge had been brought by a local cafe owner, who argued that the curfew went too far, and breached her human rights and implied rights under the Australian constitution.
But it has been dismissed, according to reports from local media.
Victoria and its state capital of Melbourne, was under Australia’s longest and strictest lockdown, due to skyrocketing cases there earlier this year. The state has now gone three days in a row without a new case, and some restrictions have eased.
BREAKING: The Supreme Court has DISMISSED a challenge to Victoria's 9pm-5am curfew, ruling it was VALID. More @theheraldsun soon. #springst #auspol
— Shannon Deery (@s_deery) November 2, 2020
Updated
Mexico records 4,430 new cases
Hi all, it’s Naaman Zhou here, taking over the blog for the next few hours. Thanks to Helen Sullivan for her work on it today.
Mexico’s health ministry has just reported ,430 new confirmed coronavirus cases cases and 142 additional deaths, as reported by Reuters.
That brings the total in the country to 929,392 cases and 91,895 deaths.
The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed case.
Hi, Helen Sullivan here. I’ll now be handing our live coronavirus updates over to my colleague Naaman Zhou – as I head over to the dedicated US Elections liveblog.
England's lockdown could be extended – Gove
The one-month lockdown for England announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson this weekend could be extended as Britain struggles to contain a second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, a senior cabinet member told Sky News on Sunday.
Reuters has this report:
After resisting the prospect of a new national lockdown for most of last month, Johnson announced on Saturday that new restrictions across England would kick in after midnight on Thursday morning and last until 2 December.
The United Kingdom, which has the biggest official death toll in Europe from Covid-19, is grappling with more than 20,000 new coronavirus cases a day and scientists have warned a worst-case scenario of 80,000 dead could be exceeded this winter.
Asked if a lockdown could be extended beyond early December, senior cabinet minister Michael Gove told Sky News: “Yes.”
“We can definitively say that unless we take action now, the (health service) is going to be overwhelmed in ways that none of us could countenance,” Gove said.
Several cabinet ministers hinted England’s lockdown could extend to next year, with the government considering a brief relaxation over the Christmas period, according to The Times.
The cabinet ministers said they believed it would be “very difficult” to end the lockdown if coronavirus-related deaths and hospital admissions were still rising, the newspaper reported.
Sao Paolo sees protests against mantadory Covid-19 immunization
More than 300 Brazilians gathered on São Paulo’s main commercial thoroughfare on Sunday to protest state Governor João Doria’s support for mandatory Covid-19 immunization and testing the potential vaccine developed by China’s Sinovac.
Doria has previously spoken in favor of making immunizations mandatory, once vaccines are available, sparking a spat with President Jair Bolsonaro who vows it will be voluntary. The Supreme Court’s chief justice has said the court will ultimately decide on the issue.
A number of vaccines are obligatory in Brazil, including for example Hepatitis B which is given to newborns. Brazil has had great success with large vaccination campaigns in the past, eradicating polio in the 1980s for example.
In São Paulo, the Sinovac vaccine is being tested as part of phase III clinical trials with support from the Doria government.
Brazil’s federal health ministry announced last month it would buy 46 million doses of the vaccine, contingent on regulatory approval, in a deal supported by state governors. But a day later right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro said that Brazil would not buy the vaccine.
Bolsonaro has bashed China intermittently since the campaign trail in 2018, over the Asian countries growing investments and influence in Brazil.
Brazil has the third-worst outbreak of coronavirus globally, with 5.5 million cases, after the United States and India, according to a Reuters tally.
Brexit Party to rebrand as ‘anti-lockdown’ party, Farage says
In case you missed this earlier:
Nigel Farage plans to rebrand the Brexit Party as an anti-lockdown party called Reform UK, the party leader has announced in an article in the Telegraph where he says “it is time to redirect our energies”.
The plans to change the name are subject to approval of the Electoral Commission. None of the party’s candidates won a seat in the 2019 general election.
There is now a political choice on lockdown and we wait to see whether we get a genuine Brexit.
— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) November 1, 2020
Beyond that, our whole system of government is not working and needs wholesale reform.
https://t.co/PQVht3E8CJ
Global deaths near 1.2m
The number of people who have suffered coronavirus-related deaths worldwide since the beginning of the pandemic is nearing 1.2m, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker.
The toll currently stands at 1,198,942.
The United States, with 230,87, has the highest number of deaths worldwide. With 159,884 deaths, Brazil’s toll is the second highest.
A reminder that William’s father, the Prince of Wales, contracted coronavirus in March and he quarantined with mild symptoms separately from the Duchess of Cornwall, who tested negative, for 14 days.
The royal couple reunited just days before their 15th wedding anniversary in April. In his first public engagement after recovering from mild symptoms, Charles revealed he lost his sense of taste and smell when he had coronavirus.
He spoke of his personal experience with Covid-19 when he met frontline NHS staff and key workers in person with Camilla in mid-June.
Updated
Prince William contracted Covid-19 in April – reports
The BBC reports that, according to unnamed Buckingham Palace sources, Prince William tested positive for coronavirus in April, at the same time has his father, Prince Charles.
The BBC reports that, according to the Sun newspaper, Prince William “kept his diagnosis private to avoid alarming the nation”.
Kensington Palace, the office and home of Prince William, refused to comment officially.
Prince William did not tell anyone about his positive test result because “there were important things going on and I didn’t want to worry anyone”, according to the Sun.
He was treated by palace doctors and followed government guidelines by isolating at the family home Anmer Hall, in Norfolk, the paper added.
Prince William reportedly carried out 14 telephone and video call engagements during April.
Updated
According to the WHO guidelines cited by Dr Tedros, he should quarantine for 14 days. The guidelines state:
WHO recommends that all contacts of individuals with a confirmed or probable COVID-19 be quarantined in a designated facility or at home for 14 days from their last exposure.
A contact is a person in any of the following situations from 2 days before and up to 14 days after the onset of symptoms in the confirmed or probable case of COVID-19:
• face-to-face contact with a probable or confirmed case of COVID-19 within 1 meter and for more than 15 minutes;
• direct physical contact with a probable or confirmed case of COVID-19
• direct care for an individual with probable or confirmed COVID-19 without using proper personal protective equipment; or
• other situations, as indicated by local risk assessments.
As we bring you the latest on the WHO chief going into quarantine, a reminder that you can get in touch with me on Twitter @helenrsullivan with any tips, comments or questions.
According to Tedros’ Twitter bio he is currently in Geneva, Switzerland (home to the WHO headquarters), which happens to have announced on Sunday that it will impose a partial lockdown on Monday after reporting more than 1,000 new cases on several days.
The new measures will see bars, restaurants, close-contact services and non-essential shops closed from 7pm on 2 November. Schools will remain open.
The measures will remain in effect until 29 November.
Cinemas, museums, concert halls, gyms, swimming pools and ice rinks will also be shuttered, the cantonal government said in a statement on Sunday.
WHO chief in quarantine
Here is what we know so far about the WHO chief going into quarantine:
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday that he had been identified as a contact of someone who tested positive for Covid-19, but added that he was feeling well and did not have any symptoms.
Tedros said in a tweet that he would be self-quarantining “over the coming days”.
I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for #COVID19. I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 1, 2020
He added in subsequent tweets that, “It is critically important that we all comply with health guidance. This is how we will break chains of #COVID19 transmission, suppress the virus, and protect health systems,” and that, “My @WHO colleagues and I will continue to engage with partners in solidarity to save lives and protect the vulnerable. Together!”.
My @WHO colleagues and I will continue to engage with partners in solidarity to save lives and protect the vulnerable. Together!
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 1, 2020
Summary – WHO chief in quarantine
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
I’m in Sydney, where it is Monday morning on 2 November 2020, which means we’re a day out from the US election.
I’ll be bringing you the latest coronavirus news from that country and many others for the next few hours on this, our dedicated Covid blog. For our US election blog (and if you could do with a series of spikes in your blodd pressure), head here.
World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Sunday that he had been identified as a contact of someone who tested positive for Covid-19, but added that he was feeling well and did not have any symptoms.
Tedros said in a tweet that he would be self-quarantining “over the coming days”:
I have been identified as a contact of someone who has tested positive for #COVID19. I am well and without symptoms but will self-quarantine over the coming days, in line with @WHO protocols, and work from home.
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) November 1, 2020
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Iran’s true death toll is likely to be at least three times higher than the reported figure, the head of Iran’s medical council has said.
- Brazil’s health minister has been discharged from hospital. He was admitted to hospital with coronavirus and dehydration two days ago.
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There have been a further 23,254 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases in the UK, according to government data. This compares to 21,915 new cases registered on Saturday.
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Donald Trump’s campaign rallies may have led to 30,000 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19, and likely resulted in more than 700 deaths overall, according to a Stanford University paper posted online this weekend.
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Greece has reported a further 1,678 new coronavirus cases, bringing the country’s total to 40,929. It comes after a record daily increase of 2,056 was announced on Saturday.
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Geneva will impose a partial lockdown on Monday after the Swiss canton reported more than 1,000 new cases on several days.
- France reported 46,290 further coronavirus cases on Sunday, bringing the total to over 1.4 million cases. Infections rose by 35,641 the previous day.
- Slovakia tested almost half of its entire population yesterday, as part of a two-day mass testing programme designed to bring coronavirus under control without implementing further lockdown measures. Of the 2.58 millio people tested, 1% were positive and will have to quarantine.
- Russia’s daily tally of coronavirus cases hit a record high of 18,665, taking the national total to 1,636,781. Meanwhile, Iran has marked its highest daily increase in its coronavirus death toll, with 434 recorded on Saturday.
