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Global cases pass 13 million
There are more than 13 million coronavirus cases worldwide, an increase of 1m cases in 5 days, Johns Hopkins University data show.
The current total is 13,026,225. There have been 570,924 known deaths so far.
Hi, Helen Sullivan with you now.
Get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
In Spain, Reuters reports that the Catalonian government has approved a decree giving it legal backing to place restrictions on the city of Lleida and its surroundings to stem a surge in infections, defying a judge’s earlier ruling that such an order was unlawful.
After an extraordinary late-night cabinet meeting, the regional government said it would seek legal authorisation allowing it to limit people’s movements, adding that on Tuesday it could confine Lleida area inhabitants at home.
Earlier on Monday, Catalonia’s leader Quim Torra urged the 160,000 people living in an area where cases have increased to stay home, defying a court ruling which rejected a mandatory home confinement.
The contradicting orders sowed confusion and anger in the area. Businesses feared for their survival and the mayor said he was at a loss about what to tell people.
Spain, which has been one of the European countries worst affected by the pandemic, lifted a strict nationwide lockdown last month as it seemed to have come under control.
But, with dozens of new clusters, local authorities across Spain are scrambling to take new measures, confining small areas or making it mandatory to wear a mask in public.
“We don’t agree with this court ruling. We don’t accept it,” Torra, who leads Catalonia’s pro-independence regional government, told a news conference on Monday after Judge Elena García-Muñoz Alarcos threw out the planned mandatory lockdown.
The Kuwaiti cabinet has cancelled plans to construct the Al-Dabdaba solar plant, which would have provided 15% of the oil sector’s needs of electrical energy, due to the pandemic.
The project, which was to be carried out by Kuwait National Petroleum Company (KNPC), was supposed to start operating in February 2021. But the proposal was extremely delayed due to bureaucratic procedures.
The lowest bid for the project was 439m Kuwaiti dinars (£1.1bn), Kuwait’s Alrai newspaper said on 5 July.
Brazil has suffered 733 more deaths and confirmed 20,286 new cases inn 24 hours, its Health Ministry has said. That takes the country’s total death toll to 72,833 people and its cumulative caseload to 1.9m.
880 private contractor employees at US immigration detention centres test positive
More than 880 employees of private contractors running US immigration detention centres have tested positive, according to congressional testimony given by company executives.
Reuters reports that the heads of four companies – CoreCivic, The GEO Group, Management & Training Corporation (MTC) and LaSalle Corrections – that detain immigrants on contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), registered the infections among its employees in response to questions from lawmakers.
ICE has reported 45 cases among its direct staff at detention facilities. Most of the employees at the privately run centres, however, work for private contractors and are not included in ICE’s count, Reuters reported.
US lawmakers have raised concerns about the spread of the virus inside nearly 70 centres across the country. More than 3,000 people in ICE custody have tested positive for, though some have recovered or been released. Two detainees have died.
Updated
Making facing coverings in English shops mandatory had increasingly appeared an inevitable next step in the government’s campaign against coronavirus after the UK’s prime minister appeared wearing one on Friday, and mused about taking a stricter approach.
On Sunday, Boris Johnson’s cabinet colleague Michael Gove denied this was the plan. He said it would be better to trust people’s good sense.
By Monday, it was back to plan A.
My colleague Heather Stewart analyses Downing Street missteps and mixed messages:
Face masks to be mandatory in English shops
Face masks will become mandatory in shops across England, UK government ministers are to announce on Tuesday, following mixed messages, a cabinet split and mounting pressure on the country’s prime minister Boris Johnson to change public advice, Jessica Elgot, Heather Stewart and Vikram Dodd write.
New legislation will not come into force until Friday 24 July, however, raising concerns over the risk of coronavirus spreading over the next 10 days as lockdown is eased.
Enforcement, which will include a fine of up to £100 for non-compliance, will be down to police, though shop staff will be expected to encourage the policy, No 10 said.
The announcement is understood to have been rushed forward after Michael Gove, the cabinet minister, said on Sunday that masks should not be made mandatory, contradicting indications from the prime minister last week.
Updated
We reported earlier on efforts by the Trump administration to discredit the White House’s infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci.
Donald Trump has now claimed to have a “very good relationship with Dr Fauci”, while his press secretary Kayleigh McEnany denied that officials had shared opposition research with reporters.
Over the weekend, Trump aides told news outlets that Fauci, who has become the public face of the government’s response, had made a series of ‘mistakes’ in his predictions.
Updated
An entire hospital in Mexico’s southern Oaxaca state has been put in quarantine after 68% of its remaining staff tested positive, writes Analy Nuño in Guadalajara.
Doctors and nurses at the Macedonio Benítez Fuentes hospital in the town of Juchitán de Zaragoza held protests last week, calling for a lockdown after 120 of their colleagues were put under isolation after positive tests.
Following further testing of the remaining 249 staff on Friday, another 170 were found to have Covid-19. According to La Jornada newspaper, most of the infected staff members were asymptomatic and were told to self-isolate at home.
But, with only a limited staff, the hospital has been forced to suspend normal services, closing its outpatient clinic and only receiving emergency cases, said its director Juan Manuel Cruz Ruíz.
The hospital won’t close – we will still deal with urgent cases, and have already analysed our staffing requirements to attend to the community as our colleagues start to return to work.
Patients who were being treated for Covid-19 at the hospital will be transferred to other hospitals in the region, which is Mexico’s second-poorest.
According to health workers at the hospital, the outbreak began on 21 June after the death of a patient who was not being treated for Covid-19.
Mexico has reported some 300,000 Covid-19 cases and 35,000 deaths. It has also seen several outbreaks among health workers, the most serious of which have been in Mexico City, and the states of Oaxaca, Baja California, Coahuila, and Jalisco.
China steps up travel warning to Australia amid tensions over Hong Kong
China has stepped up a travel warning to Australia, telling its citizens of a risk of being searched “arbitrarily” by law enforcement authorities, Agence France-Presse reports.
Tensions between the two countries have been escalating on various fronts after Beijing reacted with fury to calls for an independent investigation into the origins and spread of the pandemic, which first surfaced in central China last year.
Apart from warning of discrimination recently, China’s culture and tourism ministry advised against travelling to Australia last month due to increasing racism linked to the virus.
On Monday, the foreign ministry said that “racial discrimination and acts of violence in Australia have significantly increased”, accusing Australian media of fanning the flames of anti-Chinese sentiment.
The Chinese foreign ministry’s latest notice also came days after Australia offered about 10,000 people from Hong Kong pathways to permanent residency in response to China’s crackdown on dissent in the city, encouraging entrepreneurs or skilled workers to relocate as well. The moves drew ire from Beijing.
“Australia’s relevant law enforcement authorities arbitrarily search Chinese citizens and seize their items, and these circumstances could cause harm to Chinese citizens in Australia, as well as the safety of their assets,” said the ministry.
The notice posted on the WeChat social media app also reminded Chinese citizens to “pay close attention” to local safety risks and “travel with caution to Australia in the near-term”.
Responding to questions on Australia’s latest announcements about Hong Kong, foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying warned at a regular briefing that Australia’s moves could bring negative consequences.
We urge Australia to change its course and stop interfering in Hong Kong’s affairs and China’s internal affairs in any way, or risk further damage to China-Australia relations.
Updated
The technology firm Apple has told its staff a full return to US offices will not occur before the end of the year, according to Bloomberg News, which cites an internal video message.
The company is also pushing staff to work remotely as the virus forces the company to shut some of its stores again, the report added. Apple has not immediately responded to a request for comment from Reuters.
Summary
Here’s a summary of recent developments:
- The WHO chief Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that there would be “no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future”, adding: “There are no short cuts out of this pandemic.”
- Hong Kong reimposed social distancing measures after a sudden spike in coronavirus infections, banning public gatherings of more than four people.
- The US state of California did similar, closing down many businesses recently allowed to reopen. Its governor Gavin Newsom ordered bars to close and banned indoor restaurant dining, among other measures.
-
A new UN report said that coronavirus could mean an additional 130m people going hungry this year. It added that “after steadily declining for decades, chronic hunger slowly began to rise in 2014 and continues to do so”.
- Angela Merkel warned that a special EU summit might not be able to agree a deal on a coronavirus recovery fund, with some countries nervous that the €750bn proposals were too extravagant.
- UK prime minister Boris Johnson said that people in England should wear masks in shops as an “extra insurance policy” against coronavirus. And he appeared to suggest that the government would have more to say on the subject in the coming days.
- The death toll in Latin America has reached 144,758, taking it past that in the US and Canada, and leaving the region second only to Europe. A Reuters tally meanwhile found that the global number of infections has risen by 1m in five days.
- In the US, the Trump administration came under fire for its apparent attempt to sideline infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci for disagreeing with the president.
- About 250,000 people in Manila will return to lockdown in an attempt to stall the infection rate there. The Philippines has the second highest number of infections in south-east Asia.
California’s governor Gavin Newsom has ordered a massive retrenchment of the state’s optimistic reopening, shutting bars and banning indoor restaurant dining statewide and closing churches, gyms and hair salons in hardest-hit counties, Reuters reports.
Updated
In Colombia, 14 medical associations have called for complete lockdown across the capital Bogotá, Joe Parkin Daniels writes from the city.
Its worst-affected neighbourhoods went under strict lockdowns on Monday, though medical experts say the measures must be city-wide. The institutions, which include doctors’ unions and medical colleges, called for a “strict and immediate quarantine” of two weeks across the entire city in an open letter.
Esto es lo que las 14 asociaciones científicas y gremiales le proponen a los mandatarios @ClaudiaLopez ye @IvanDuque #MedicosLeHablanAlPais #Covid19Colombia #Covid19Bogota La cúspide de la curva es el principio de la pandemia. pic.twitter.com/C9UNGhd3H1
— Colegio Médico de Bogotá (@CMBogotaDC) July 13, 2020
Colombia first went under a strict nationwide lockdown in late March, a couple of weeks after the first cases were confirmed on 6 March. That lockdown was partially lifted across the country, though masks remained compulsory in public. But, with cases continually climbing, authorities are mulling another strict lockdown.
In Bogotá, the hardest-hit Colombian city, certain neighbourhoods were locked down for two weeks, with only key businesses, such as supermarkets and pharmacies, permitted to open.
Colombia has confirmed 150,445 cases, with 5,307 deaths. Bogotá has seen nearly 50,000 cases and intensive care units were at 85% occupancy on Friday. Nationwide, cases are rising by 5,000 per day.
Bogotá’s mayor Claudia López had been warning residents that a return to a strict lockdown would be necessary if cases continued to rise.
The Trump administration is increasingly at war with Anthony Fauci, the federal government’s top public health expert, over the handling of the epidemic, as the US continues to report around 60,000 new cases a day.
In what appeared to be a concerted effort to discredit the infectious diseases expert, Trump aides told news outlets over the weekend Fauci, who has become the public face of the government’s response, had made a series of “mistakes” in his predictions.
Fauci’s unvarnished manner and willingness to be blunt in a way that may question or contradict statements by the president have fed reports he has been barred from major media appearances, though he has testified in Congress and continued to speak to the press. Fauci said last week he had not briefed Trump in months.
"I have a very good relationship w/Dr. Fauci, I find him to be a very nice person, but I don't always agree with him as you know..." - President Trump must now. In past week Fauci was excluded from task force press briefing & other WH officials have publicly criticized him.
— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCBS) July 13, 2020
Updated
France has reported falls in hospitalisations and of patients in intensive care units in a new sign its healthcare system is able to cope with the epidemic for now.
The country’s health ministry said the number of people in hospital with Covid-19 fell to 6,983 from 7,062 as of 10 July, continuing a weeks-long downtrend. The number of people in intensive care units was down to 492 from 496. The total death toll in France stood at 30,004 people.
Police are searching for three people, one of whom tested positive, who left quarantine on a farm at the centre of an outbreak in Herefordshire, in the UK.
It was announced on Sunday that about 200 staff at the vegetable farm and packing business AS Green & Co had been ordered to isolate on the property after at least 73 workers tested positive, prompting concerns about safety standards in agriculture.
West Mercia police has said they are working with Public Health England and the local authority to trace an individual who left the site after testing positive.
The US has suffered 312 more deaths registered 60,469 new cases, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), taking the respective official totals to 134,884 and 3,296,599.
Summary
Here’s your runthrough of recent events before I hand over to my colleague Kevin Rawlinson:
- WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that there would be “no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future’ and said: ‘there are no short cuts out of this pandemic’.
- Hong Kong reimposed social distancing measures after a sudden spike in coronavirus infections, banning public gatherings of more than four people.
-
A new UN report said that coronavirus could mean an additional 130m people going hungry this year. It added that “after steadily declining for decades, chronic hunger slowly began to rise in 2014 and continues to do so”.
- Angela Merkel warned that a special EU summit might not be able to agree a deal on a coronavirus recovery fund, with some countries nervous that the €750bn proposals were too extravagant.
- UK prime minister Boris Johnson said that people in England should wear masks in shops as an “extra insurance policy” against coronavirus. And he appeared to suggest that the government would have more to say on the subject in the coming days.
- The death toll in Latin America has reached 144,758, taking it past that in the US and Canada, and leaving the region second only to Europe. A Reuters tally meanwhile found that the global number of infections has risen by 1m in five days.
- In the US, the Trump administration came under fire for its apparent attempt to sideline infectious disease expert Dr Anthony Fauci for disagreeing with the president.
- About 250,000 people in Manila will return to lockdown in an attempt to stall the infection rate there. The Philippines has the second highest number of infections in south-east Asia.
That’s it from me. Kevin is your guide for the next few hours.
Updated
Merkel: EU summit may not agree €750bn coronavirus recovery fund
Ahead of a special EU summit to discuss plans for a pandemic recovery fund, Angela Merkel said on Monday that it was not clear that leaders would be able to reach a deal.
“The road that we have to tread is still rocky,” she said. “I don’t know if we will reach an agreement.”
The scale of the €750bn fund has led some nations, including Netherlands, Austria, Denmark, and Sweden, to seek to rein in spending, replacing grants with conditional loans, AFP reported.
But Merkel said there was no point in a cut-down fund and that the money provided “must be massive”.
She was speaking after talks with Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, one of the countries that would be a recipient of money from the fund.
He told reporters: “We have to act swiftly, because history teaches us that the best reaction is not worth much if it comes too slowly.”
My colleague Peter Beaumont has covered the apparent attempts in the White House to discredit infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci. Fauci, the “figurehead of attempts to combat the country’s coronavirus epidemic”, has contradicted Donald Trump’s view of the effectiveness of the coronavirus response, Peter writes:
In recent days the 79-year-old director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases has come under increasing fire from the president and his proxies. Trump told Fox news interviewers that Fauci had “made a lot of mistakes” and said he “disagreed” with Fauci’s claim that the US was in a bad place in its coronavirus response...
In the latest salvo of a coordinated briefing campaign, a White House official told CNN on Saturday that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr Fauci has been wrong on things”.
Our US blog reports that governor of New York Andrew Cuomo has now defended Fauci and accused Trump of “attacking science”.
Read Peter’s piece here:
In England, following our earlier post about Boris Johnson saying that people should wear masks in shops as an “extra insurance policy”, here’s video of the UK prime minister’s comments on the subject earlier. He’s not wearing a face mask in the interview, mind you.
Worth noting that Johnson suggested there would be more to come on the subject in the days ahead, saying: “Whether we make it mandatory or not, we’ll be saying a bit more in the next few days.”
Updated
One controversial consequence of the coronavirus pandemic in the US has been the Trump administration’s decision to tell international students that they must leave the country if their classes next semester are all online. A wide range of colleges and state officials are seeking to challenge that rule, hoping to reverse it before the students who must rethink their futures have all gone.
Now a brief filed by 59 universities says that the rule throws their plans into disarray with less than a month before term begins. 200 universities are backing the challenge in total, signing briefs to support litigation by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A judge is scheduled to hear arguments Tuesday in the case.
An AP report continues:
The group includes all of Harvard’s companions in the Ivy League and other prestigious schools including Stanford and Duke universities. They collectively enroll more than 213,000 international students.
These students are core members of our institutions, the schools wrote. They make valuable contributions to our classrooms, campuses and communities contributions that have helped make American higher education the envy of the world.
Here’s a video of WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus’s press conference earlier today. Tedros said there would be no return to the old normal ‘for the foreseeable future’, adding: ‘there are no short cuts out of this pandemic’.
In France, the government and unions have just signed an agreement committing more than €8bn in pay rises for health workers, with prime minister Jean Castex saying: “This is first of all recognition of those who have been on the front line in the fight against this epidemic”.
AFP reported that the bulk of the package was made up of €7.5bn for pay rises for nurses and careworkers. another €450m will go to doctors who work solely in the public sector, the aim being to incentivise them to move from more lucrative private sector work.
Castex said that “each and every one - including perhaps myself - has their share of responsibility” for delays to the deal.
Some hardline unions did not sign the agreements, which AFP called “an indication that tensions over the issue may not be over.”
130m may go hungry in 2020 because of coronavirus, UN report warns
A new UN report published on Monday says that the number of people going hungry around the world grew by 10m last year - and warns that coronavirus could mean that 130m more join them in 2020.
An Associated Press write-up of the document says that “preliminary projections based on available global economic outlooks suggest the pandemic may add an additional 83 (million) to 132 million people to the ranks of the undernourished in 2020”.
It adds that “after steadily declining for decades, chronic hunger slowly began to rise in 2014 and continues to do so”.
The AP story continues:
With progress in fighting hunger stalled even before the pandemic, the report’s authors said that COVID-19 is intensifying the vulnerabilities and inadequacies of global food systems defined in the report as all the activities and processes affecting the production, distribution and consumption of food...
As a result of the pandemic, food supply disruptions, lost livelihoods and the inability of people working abroad to send remittances home to their families mean it’s even more difficult for the poorer and vulnerable populations to have access to healthy diets, the UN agencies concluded.
Michael Ryan’s forceful remarks that a return to school must be based on the local picture and whether there is broader risk of transmission in a community stands in contrast to US education secretary Betsy DeVos’ remarks on Sunday, as reported by my colleague Lauren Aratani in New York:
We know that children get the virus at a far lower rate than any other part of the population. There’s nothing in the data that suggests that kids being back in school is dangerous to them.
DeVos did also say that hotspots should be dealt with on a case-by-case basis - but she added: “the rule should be that kids go back to school this fall”.
Here’s the story.
Van Kerkhove says she wants to focus on individuals’ responsibility. “Please make good choices,” she says. “There are many people, essential workers, who cannot stay at home. And if you can … please stay home.”
She urges the wearing of masks, physical distancing, handwashing, and talking to children about sensible precautions. “This is far from over, so we all have to play our part,” she says.
That’s the final question and the press conference will shortly wind up.
Updated
Tedros has now left the press conference, leaving Ryan and Van Kerkhove to answer the large question of what’s gone wrong in the Americas.
Ryan says: “Reopenings have led to more intense transmission and now a number of countries face a scenario where there’s increasing and sometimes exponential transmission, not necessarily with the option of new lockdowns because of the economic damage and community acceptance.”
He calls on governments and individuals not to carry on as normal, saying: “This is the issue, turn and face the fire, turn and face the problem. It’s going to require a huge commitment on behalf of government and individuals.”
“If people continue to frequent crowded places without taking the necessary precautions... the disease will continue to transmit,” he says. But he adds that governments must be clear and consistent and make it easy for citizens to comply.
He adds: “I can’t say this strongly enough: the countries that have put in place strong public health surveillance architecture during lockdowns... are having relative success in continuing to suppress the virus.”
And he says that “believing that magically we will get a perfect vaccine that everyone has access to is not realistic” and questions whether even if a vaccine becomes available it will be fairly available to all.
Once again he emphasises clear and strong government leadership - a theme of the press conference.
Dr Michael Ryan, executive director, says there is an issue around how schools can be reopened safely but the best way is to do so in a situation of low community transmission. He adds: “we can’t turn schools into yet another political football in this game... we have to look at this carefully in the light of transmission in any given setting.”
He sounds frustrated by the nature of some of the debate around the question of school reopening as he implies that it would be foolish for the WHO to set out a hard-and-fast rule for the whole world to follow. “[Decisions] must be based on data in the specific setting in which schools are,” he says. “My fear in this is that we create these political footballs that get kicked around the place.”
In response to a question about child-to-child transmission and school reopening, and whether there is any update to the WHO position, Van Kerkhove says that some studies are currently underway or coming out as pre-print (not yet peer reviewed) papers which shed light on the question.
She says results depend on how studies break down by age but that “those above 10 seem to have similar seroprevalance [numbers with blood tests showing they have the disease] to young adults, which means that they can be infected but tend to have more mild disease”.
She says that there is still much to understand about infection among children. She concludes without appearing to set out any change in WHO advice: “Children do seem to be less affected, but they can be infected. Our understanding of transmission among children is still limited.”
Dr Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s technical lead, gives her best wishes to a journalist who recently recovered from the virus.
On the question of immune response to the virus, she says that it is still not know how strong or long the protection from antibodies is. Some early data shows antibody levels “may wane over time”, she says, but adds that more information is needed.
You can read more on this subject here:
Updated
Now Tedros speaks critically of leaders in countries where “mixed messages” have led to a breakdown in trust. He says that if this approach is taken, matters are going to get “worse and worse”.
He adds: “I know that many leaders are working in difficult circumstances” and uses the example of people living in poverty around the world. “There are no short cuts out of this pandemic,” he adds.
While he has not named specific countries, some will hear a message for Donald Trump in his warning.
“There will be no return to the old normal for the foreseeable future. But there is a roadmap to a situation where we can control the virus and get on with our lives,” he says. But it will require a focus on reducing transmission, an empowered community, and strong government leadership.
“It can be done, it must be done,” he says. “I have said it before and I will keep saying it. No matter where a country is in its epidemic curve, it’s never too late to take decisive action.”
He concludes his remarks and opens the floor to questions.
The World Health Organization is holding its daily briefing on the coronavirus outbreak.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus says four situations were playing out around the world. Some countries were “alert and aware” and have avoided significant outbreaks. “Leaders of those countries took command of the emergency … and pursued a comprehensive strategy,” he says.
The second group he defines is countries where a “major outbreak was brought under control” through strong leadership and public adherence.
In these situations leaders are opening up the countries on a data-driven basis, he says.
The third situation are those that overcame the first peak, but are now facing a second wave. “It would appear that many countries are losing gains as proven measures to reduce risk are not followed,” he says.
Finally, there are countries in the “intense transmission phase”, he says. He notes that the epicentre of the virus remains the Americas, but says it’s never too late to bring the virus under control.
Updated
Global coronavirus infections climb by 1m in five days, Reuters tally finds
A new Reuters tally finds that the total number of infections around the world stands at 13m, with about 570,000 dead.
The figures are based on official government reports. The story notes a few other significant points:
- The disease is accelerating fastest in Latin America. The Americas account for more than half the world’s infections and half the deaths.
- Parts of the world, especially the US, with more than 3.3m confirmed cases, are seeing huge increases in a first wave of Covid-19 infections while others “flatten the curve” and ease lockdowns.
- The first case was reported in China in early January and it took three months to reach 1m cases. It has taken just five days to climb to 13m cases from 12m recorded on 8 July.
- In countries with limited testing capacity, case numbers reflect only a proportion of total infections. Experts say official data likely under-represents both infections and deaths.
Reuters has produced an interesting, if cheerless, set of graphics showing the pace of the spread and how it’s varied around the world. You can see them here.
Updated
A quick note to say that an earlier post that said that the death toll in Latin America has gone past that of the US and Canada has been edited to clarify that the great majority of the two North American countries combined death toll is in the US.
You can see that amended post here.
Updated
Only 12 of almost 2,000 schoolchildren and teachers tested in the German state of Saxony have shown antibodies to Covid-19, a study has found.
The research by the University hospital in Dresden, reported on Reuters, will add to the debate as how big a role schools play in spreading the virus.
Germany began reopening schools in May. Debate continues as to the role children may play in spreading the virus to vulnerable adults at home as well as to older teachers and school staff.
University hospital analysed blood samples from almost 1,500 children aged between 14 and 18 and 500 teachers from 13 schools in Dresden and the districts of Bautzen and Goerlitz in May and June.
Of the almost 2,000 samples, only 12 had antibodies, said Reinhard Berner from University hospital, adding the first results gave no evidence that schoolchildren play a role in spreading the virus particularly quickly.
“Children may even act as a brake on infection,” Berner told a news conference, saying infections in schools had not led to an outbreak, while the spread of the virus within households was also less dynamic than previously thought.
Saxony’s education minister, Christian Piwarz, said the study showed schools in the state could reopen as normal following the summer vacation at the end of August with some conditions, such as mask-wearing and social distancing where possible.
In the US, an unpublished Centers for Disease Control and Prevention document has reportedly warned that fully reopening schools and universities remains the “highest risk” for the spread of the coronavirus.
In England, the government’s scientific advisers have warned that fully reopening schools without substantial improvements in the performance of the test-and-trace system could risk sparking a resurgence of cases of Covid-19.
Updated
From today it is mandatory to use face coverings on public transport in Ireland, with breaches punishable by fines of up to €2,500 and six months in prison.
Ireland has largely suppressed community transmission of Covid-19 but authorities fear a resurgence as the country emerges from lockdown.
Most bus, train and tram companies reported compliance rates ranging from 80% to 95%, though Go Ahead Ireland reported a lower rate of 60-70% on its city bus services.
From today, wearing a face covering on public transport is mandatory. This will protect staff and passengers alike.
— Department of Health (@roinnslainte) July 13, 2020
It is important to note some are unable to wear face coverings for health reasons and should not be judged.
More #COVID19 guidance here: https://t.co/oUgyoA2nrM
Updated
Hong Kong tightens social distancing again as coronavirus cases spike
Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said on Monday that the financial hub will reimpose social distancing measures after a sudden spike in coronavirus infections.
They new rules will ban more than four people from gathering in public, shutter some businesses and restricting restaurants from catering to evening diners. AFP reports:
The city has had impressive success in tackling the disease with just over 1,400 infections and eight deaths. In the last two months, local transmissions had all but ended.
However, in the last two weeks a cluster of local infections has emerged and officials believe the disease is spreading undetected in the densely populated city of 7.5 million.
Here’s the South China Morning Post’s version of the story, which notes disagreements among local epidemiologists about how best to contain a new wave of infections. Some doubt that the more stringent measures will be sustainable in the long run, the paper says.
Updated
Greece intensifies infection control measures
Greece has announced it will be intensifying measures to keep coronavirus infections in check after an alarming spike in confirmed cases. Among a number of steps highlighted by the government on Monday was the decision to reduce the timeframe in which travellers will be required to complete passenger locator forms (PLFs) before entering the country.
Addressing reporters ahead of direct flights being resumed from the UK on Wednesday, government spokesman Stelios Petsas said the form would have to be submitted 24 hours prior to check in and not 48 hours as had previously been the case.
Greek health authorities have been applying algorithmic software to the electronic forms in a bid to detect people most at risk of carrying the virus. The new timeframe is aimed at improving the validity and freshness of data cited on the forms.
The abrupt rise in confirmed coronavirus cases – both “imported” by travellers entering the country and of unknown provenance domestically – has alarmed authorities in a country that until now had won plaudits for its successful handling of the pandemic.
To date, Greece has registered 3,803 cases and 193 Covid-19-related deaths. But since loosening restrictions on movement in early May and reopening borders on 1 July, infection rates have increased noticeably with some experts expressing the fear that the country could be in the midst of a “second wave”.
Petsas said “inspections of the application of health protocols across Greece” will also be stepped up. Since Thursday last, he noted, 590 inspections [of bars and restaurants] had taken place nationwide, resulting in 87 fines worth €51,000. “We ought to be aware that it would be wrong to become victims of our success,” he told reporters.
While epidemiologists have voiced anxiety over the number of “asymptomatic” cases among visitors, there is also mounting concern over lax observation of social distancing measures by Greeks, with Petsas saying the government is considering banning religious festivals that see hundreds gather in villages and islands nationwide.
Authorities will also be intensifying tests at the country’s northern border crossings following a surge in infection rates in neighbouring Balkan states, a prime source of tourism for resorts in northern Greece.
Updated
Summary
Here’s your potted guide to recent events:
-
The death toll in Latin America has reached 144,758, taking it past that in the US and Canada, and leaving the region second only to Europe.
- British prime minister Boris Johnson has urged the public in England to wear masks in shops as an “extra insurance policy” against the coronavirus
- About 250,000 people in Manila will return to lockdown in an attempt to stall the infection rate there. The Philippines has the second highest number of infections in south-east Asia.
- Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said on Monday the Olympic Games must go ahead next year as a symbol of world unity in overcoming coronavirus.
- Turkmenistan has recommended residents wear masks because of “dust” even as the government insists the country is Covid-19-free. Turkmenistan is one of a handful of countries yet to declare coronavirus cases
- A 30-year-old patient died after attending a “Covid party”, believing the virus to be a hoax, a Texas medical official has said.
- Ten million kids ‘may never return to school’ after the pandemic, Save the Children warned. The coronavirus pandemic has caused an “unprecedented education emergency” with up to 9.7 million children affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class, the charity said.
- A group of 84 of the world’s richest people have called on governments to permanently increase taxes on them and other members of the wealthy elite to help pay for the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.
Updated
Premier League football supporters reduced to watching matches on TV with fake crowd noise may look enviously at sumo lovers in Japan from this weekend, when the sport’s association will let fans attend an arena event for the first time since coronavirus began.
The association had originally planned to organise the upcoming tournament without spectators but has decided to admit fans “by thoroughly taking measures to prevent infections inside the facility,” AFP reports.
Like all high-level sport, sumo takes on a slightly surreal atmosphere in the absence of fans, photos like this one suggest.
Reuters reports two experimental vaccines being rushed into the next stage of development in the US:
Two experimental coronavirus vaccines jointly developed by German biotech firm BioNTech and U.S. pharmaceutical giant Pfizer have received ‘fast track’ designation from the U.S. drug regulator, the companies said on Monday.
The candidates, BNT162b1 and BNT162b2, are the most advanced of the at least four vaccines being assessed by the companies in ongoing trials in the United States and Germany...
If the ongoing studies are successful, and the vaccine candidate receives regulatory approval, the companies said they expect to make up to 100 million doses by the end of this year and potentially more than 1.2 billion doses by 2021-end.
The companies said they expect to begin a large trial with up to 30,000 participants as soon as later this month, if they receive regulatory approval.
While many hopes remain pinned on a vaccine, there have been a number of setbacks to even the most promising attempts. Yesterday, Prof Robin Shattock, of Imperial College in London, cautioned that there was “no certainty” that any of the vaccines in development would work.
Here’s a useful explainer on the prospects of a vaccine by our science editor, Ian Sample, from last month:
Updated
Latin America deaths go past US and Canada toll
With the number of cases surging in Latin America, the continent on Monday had officially declared a total of 144,758 deaths, passing the 144,023 recorded in the US and Canada. The region stands second only to Europe, where 202,505 people have died.
(As a couple of readers have pointed out, it’s worth noting that 135,171 of those 144,023 deaths have been in the US, which has seen a much heavier toll than Canada so far.)
Updated
Boris Johnson says face masks should be worn in shops in England
Boris Johnson has urged the public in England to wear masks in shops as an “extra insurance policy” against the coronavirus, and said the government would issue fresh guidance on the issue this week.
The prime minister said the evidence “has been growing” on the effectiveness of wearing masks in public spaces, after coming under pressure to make the wearing of face coverings mandatory in England in line with the more stringent guidance in Scotland.
He told Sky News the government would be looking at the scientific evidence and “saying more in the next few days”.
“The scientific evidence of face coverings, and the importance of stopping aerosol droplets; that’s been growing,” Johhnson said. “So I do think that in shops it is very important to wear a face covering.”
Read the full story here:
Updated
If, like me, you’re an asthmatic making slightly less regular use of your ventolin than you were before the arrival of coronavirus, you may be interested by Menna A Farouk’s report from Cairo, where Egypt’s government is proposing to maintain sharp improvements in air quality by permanently banning late-night shopping and dining.
Farouk’s report for the Thomson Reuters foundation notes:
“It is mainly for environmental, economic and social reasons,” Khaled Qassem, a spokesman for the Egyptian Ministry of Local Development, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Besides the environmental benefits, the change would allow families to spend more time together in the evenings and potentially reduce crime, backers said.
Qassem said that the ministry, having tried out the evening shutdown during a partial coronavirus lockdown, now hoped to shorten working hours for shops, cafes, restaurants and malls in the post-coronavirus period...
A night curfew imposed as part of precautionary measures to stem the spread of the coronavirus led to a 36% air quality improvement in Greater Cairo, with even bigger gains in coastal cities and the Nile Delta, according to data from the Egyptian Ministry of Environment.
You can read that report in full here.
Updated
There have been just 11 recorded coronavirus deaths in Sri Lanka – but one week after schools in the country reopened, they were ordered to close again on Monday after a surge in new cases. The education ministry said the situation would be reviewed next week.
The country has reported 2,617 cases, AFP reports, but army chief Shavendra Silva said nearly half the 1,100 residents and staff at a drug rehab facility near the capital had tested positive in the past week, and some visitors may also have been infected.
Sri Lanka’s ruling party on Sunday called off its rallies ahead of next month’s parliamentary elections and postponed the reopening of the international airport, which was planned for early August. It also suspended a repatriation programme that has brought 12,000 Sri Lankans home from overseas.
Updated
250,000 in Manila face return to lockdown
Hi, this is Archie Bland taking over for the rest of the day. Earlier we reported that a single-day record of 162 new deaths had been reported in the Philippines; now AFP says that an official in Manila has said that about 250,000 will return to lockdown in an attempt to stall the infection rate. From AFP’s story:
I am not sure if this is a solution, but I am certain that if I do this the number of cases will not increase,” Navotas city mayor Toby Tiangco told a radio station... “We have no choice but to do it because people are so stubborn,” he said, referring to people flouting social distancing rules.
The order is expected to take effect on Wednesday or Thursday. The Philippines has the second highest number of infections in Southeast Asia, with more than 57,000 cases and 1,599 deaths.
Updated
That’s all from me Caroline Davies. Thank you for your time .
Children wearing face masks in Beijing, China, where only a handful of new cases of the virus have been reported, all of them brought in from outside the country.
Updated
You can find the Coronavirus UK map, on the latest deaths and confirmed Covid-19 cases in the UK here.
Islamic religious students wearing face masks and socially distanced attend their final examinations in Karachi, Pakistan.
Islamic religious students wearing face masks attend their final examination at an Islamic Jamia Binoria seminary in Karachi on July 13, 2020. Photograph: Rizwan Tabassum/AFP/Getty Images
The UK’s National Trust charity has reopened a small number of its houses to visitors for the first time since they all closed due to lockdown.
By the end of the week, a total of seven properties will be open in England and Northern Ireland. All visitors - including members - must book their day out in advance to restrict numbers and ensure social distancing guidelines are followed, the charity said.
Today, Barrington Court in Somerset, Kingston Lacy in Dorset, Lyme in Cheshire, Oxburgh in Norfolk and Petworth in West Sussex all reopened.
People take a walk in Petworth House and Park, following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease. Photograph: John Sibley/Reuters
The Argory in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, will welcome visitors from Wednesday and Packwood in Warwickshire will follow on Friday. Limited tickets for the following week will go on sale every Friday, according to the charity’s website.
More than 130 gardens and parklands have been gradually opened by National Trust since last month.
The facilities were originally shut in March as the government implemented strict social distancing measures to control the spread of Covid-19.
Updated
Russia on Monday reported 6,537 new cases of Covid-19, taking its overall tally to 733,699, the fourth largest reported in the world.
Authorities said 104 people had died in the last 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 11,439.
Updated
Tokyo governor says Olympics must go ahead next year as symbol of world unity
Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike said on Monday the Olympic Games must go ahead next year as a symbol of world unity in overcoming coronavirus.
Japan has not seen an explosive outbreak as suffered in some other places but a recent increase in cases in Tokyo, which accounts for more than a third of its more than 20,000 total, has fanned worries about a second wave of infections.
The 2020 Olympics were scheduled to start this month but were postponed.
Koike has pledged to win public support for the Games, although a media survey showed a majority think they should be cancelled or postponed again.
A Japanese houseboat sails past the Olympic rings in Tokyo on Friday. Photograph: Philip Fong/AFP/Getty Images
“I want to host them as a symbol of the world coming together to overcome this tough situation and of strengthened bonds among humankind,” Koike told Reuters in an online interview.
She declined to specify a deadline for deciding if the Games could go ahead.
Updated
Turkmenistan has recommended that residents wear masks because of “dust” even as the government insists the country is Covid-19 free.
The announcement came after a World Health Organization delegation arrived in the Central Asian country last week for a 10-day mission examining the response to the pandemic.
Turkmenistan is one of a handful of countries yet to declare coronavirus cases, AFP reports.
In a statement published by the state information agency, the health ministry said people should wear masks because of “high concentrations of dust” in the air.
“It is strongly recommended that everyone use personal protective equipment to protect the upper respiratory tract,” the ministry said.
It also asked residents to maintain social distancing of at least 1 metre but gave no explanation.
Officials also asked Turkmens not to stand too close to air conditioners after spending time outside, where summertime temperatures regularly exceed 40C (104F).
Updated
North Macedonia holds its first parliamentary election under its new country name this week, with voters heading to the polls during an alarming spike of coronavirus cases in the small Balkan nation, the Associated Press reports.
The country has been run by a caretaker government since January following the resignation of prime minister Zoran Zaev after the European Union failed to set a date for North Macedonia to begin accession talks. Parliament elected a temporary government consisting of members of both main parties, with the sole aim of organizing the election.
Opinion polls in the run-up to Wednesdays vote indicate a close race between coalitions led by the former governing Social Democrats and the centre-right opposition VMRO-DPMNE party.
Special provisions have been made for those quarantined due to the virus. They can vote today with electoral officials and medical teams taking the ballot boxes to their homes. Of the roughly 5,000 people quarantined, just over 700 have registered to vote. Prisoners, the elderly and the ill vote on Tuesday.
The caretaker government handled the coronavirus outbreak relatively well until May, imposing a lockdown that kept the number of infections and deaths low. But after authorities eased restrictions and opened the borders, North Macedonia saw an increase in new cases and deaths that have placed it among the most badly affected European nations in terms of the number of deaths and confirmed cases per capita.
With more than 8,000 infected people and about 380 deaths in this country of around 2 million people by Sunday, the pandemic and its devastating economic consequences have become the main election issue.
North Macedonia is one of the poorest countries in Europe with a per-capita GDP of about $6,100. More than 1.8 million people are eligible to vote at nearly 3,500 polling stations. About 2,000 domestic and 130 international observers will monitor the process.
Masks are compulsory during voting, and a 2-metre distance must be kept from election officials. Authorities are assuring voters the process will not endanger their health.
Updated
In the UK, Heathrow’s passenger numbers were down 95% year-on-year in June, with 350,000 people travelling through the airport.
Its North America and Africa markets reported the biggest declines, according to latest figures.
Passengers wearing a face mask or covering due to the Covid-19 pandemic, arrive at Heathrow airport Photograph: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP/Getty Images
Across all destinations, the number of flights was down 82% as demand for travel remained low due to the coronavirus pandemic. Demand for inbound travel was “immediately” hit when the UK government’s quarantine policy came into force on 8 June.
Total passenger numbers for the first half of the year were 60% down on the same period in 2019.
Heathrow chief executive John Holland-Kaye told PA Media: “Travel corridors were a great first step and now we need to go further to protect jobs and kick-start the economy, by allowing healthy passengers to travel freely between the UK and the rest of the world.
“We’re ready to pilot a testing system on arrival for passengers from ‘red’ countries as an alternative to quarantine, but even better would be to test passengers before they get on a plane.
“This requires a common international standard for testing, which the UK government could take a global lead in setting up.”
Updated
India has reported a surge in unsafe abortion during the pandemic. Low priority for reproductive health during lockdown has left millions unable to access contraception or safe terminations.
Updated
The place that seemed like the last in the world capable of containing the virus – Dharavi slum in Mumbai – has been hailed as a success story by the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, writes Amrit Dhillon in New Delhi.
Speaking recently about countries that had done well in the pandemic, Dr Ghebreyesus included Dharavi as an example of how, even where the outbreak was intense, it could be brought under control.
“Even in Dharavi, a densely packed area in Mumbai, a strong focus on community engagement and the basics of testing, tracing, isolating and treating all those that are sick is key to breaking the chains of transmission and suppressing the virus,” he said.
The largest slum in Asia at one point looked as though it might become a charnel house. A million people live in a 2.5-kilometre area. Its population density offers perfect conditions for the virus to rip through. Infections rose inexorably.
But last week, the slum started reporting a single-digit rise in Covid-19 cases, while in the rest of Mumbai, the worst affected city in India, the spread showed no sign of ebbing. On Sunday, only five positive cases were recorded.
Experts say a combination of measures flattened the curve. A strict lockdown was enforced. Although this caused great hardship and loss of income, residents cooperated. They voluntarily closed tiny shops or tobacco booths where people might have congregated.
The alleys and lanes were constantly sanitised. Health workers, doctors and nurses were present 24/7 to screen and test. Masks and sanitisers were freely provided. Since home quarantine was impossible in such congested living conditions, nearby hostels, schools and stadiums were turned into quarantine centres.
Fever clinics were set up so that residents could be screened and cases detected early, before they could infect others, a measure that proved faster than testing. Community kitchens provided free meals as no one was able to go out and earn a living.
Dharavi’s total number of cases stands at around 2,400. The city authorities believe it can be a model for Indian cities, including the capital New Delhi, struggling to stop new infections.
Updated
Here’s a handy explainer on the restrictions in Australia within Victoria and the border closures with NSW and other states.
Australia’s Covid-19 lockdown rules and coronavirus restrictions explained: how far can I travel, and can I have people over? https://t.co/tFptBcUP2t
— The Guardian (@guardian) July 13, 2020
Heart scans of coronavirus patients in hospital have revealed a range of abnormalities that can disrupt the ability to pump blood and in severe cases lead to a life-threatening failure in the organ.
Doctors at Edinburgh University examined ultrasound scans known as echocardiograms from more than 1,200 patients in 69 countries and found heart problems in 55%, with one in seven exhibiting signs of “severe abnormalities”.
The scans found damage to the ventricles – the two main chambers of the heart – in more than a third of the patients, while 3% had experienced heart attacks and a further 3% had inflamed heart tissue. The majority had no known heart disease before the scans were done.
Bookings at Kenya’s wildlife reserves have plummeted as a result of the pandemic.
According to the tourism ministry, the sector has lost $750m this year – roughly half of the total revenue in 2019.
In places such as the Maasai Mara, local people are facing economic disaster with cancellations from crucial markets such as China, Europe and the US.
“We were fully booked in June but now we have zero bookings. Nothing. It’s terrible,” said Jimmy Lemara, 40, the manager of an eco-lodge in the private Ol Kinyei conservancy, told AFP.
Kenya has announced international flights will resume on 1 August, but the high season is already lost.
Cultural performers from the Maasai tribe, wearing cloth masks, in Talek in the Maasai Mara national reserve where their work of performing for visiting tourists has dwindled. Photograph: Tony Karumba/AFP/Getty Images
At Talek, a town at one of the entrances to the Maasai Mara national reserve, local people are hoping for better days soon.
“Since December, work has been extremely low, and now we’re in survival mode hoping to make 150 to 200 shillings ($1.4 to $1.9) a day, to be able to buy a meal,” Ibrahim Sameri, 38, whose small mechanic workshop can generate up to $30 a day in the high season, told AFP.
Nalokiti Sayialel, 45, who normally sells bead necklaces and bracelets to tourists passing through, said:“It’s been three months that I haven’t sold anything.”
Updated
Hi. Caroline Davies here. I am going to be steering the live blog for the next few hours. You can contact me at caroline.davies@theguardian.com
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. Thanks for following along – for those of you just joining us, you can catch up on the latest with our global coronavirus report:
Naomi Klein: ‘We must not return to the pre-Covid status quo, only worse’
What kind of world will the coronavirus crisis leave us with? Interviewed by Guardian editor-in-chief Katharine Viner for a Guardian Live event, activist and author Naomi Klein insists that the climate, equality and fairness must be at the heart of the post-pandemic recovery:
So how are we going to live with this thing? Are we going to accept pre-Covid “normal”, only much diminished, without the relationships that sustain us? Are we going to allow our kids to have all of their learning mediated by technology? Or are we going to invest in people?
Instead of pouring all of our money into a Screen New Deal and trying to solve problems in a way that diminishes our quality of life, why do we not go on a teacher-hiring spree? Why do we not have twice as many teachers with half-the-size classrooms and figure out a way to do outdoor education?
There are so many ways we can think about responding to this crisis that do not accept this idea that we have to return to the pre-Covid status quo, only worse, only with more surveillance, more screens and less human contact.
Summary
- The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 230,370 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were recorded in the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa.
- The Australian state of New South Wales has recorded 14 new cases of coronavirus in the 24-hours to 8pm last night. Eight of the new cases are connected to a cluster at a clyster at a restaurant and pub, the Crossroads Hotel. They include five people who had attended the hotel and three of their close contacts.Four of those cases had already been reported to the media so the number of cases connected to the cluster has increased to 13.Only four of the new cases were returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
- A 30-year-old patient died after attending a “Covid party”, believing the virus to be a hoax, a Texas medical official has said.
- Two Madagascar lawmakers die with coronavirus. Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina on Sunday said two lawmakers - one member of the senate and one deputy - had died after becoming infected with coronavirus. Eleven other deputies and 14 senators had also tested positive for the virus, Rajoelina said.
- Mexico’s deaths pass Italy’s to become fourth-highest worldwide. Mexico’s coronavirus death toll passed Italy’s on Sunday, AFP reports, becoming the fourth-highest globally, with at least 35,006 fatalities over the course of the pandemic so far. Mexico has 295,268 confirmed cases.Italy has 295,268 cases and 34,954 deaths.
- Philippines reports record new deaths. The Philippines’ health ministry on Monday confirmed 162 new coronavirus deaths, the country’s biggest single-day increase in casualties, as a health ministry official said authorities validated some earlier cases included in the tally.
- Ten million kids ‘may never return to school’ after virus. The coronavirus pandemic has caused an “unprecedented education emergency” with up to 9.7 million children affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class, Save the Children warned Monday.
- Super-rich call for higher taxes on wealthy to pay for Covid-19 recovery. A group of 84 of the world’s richest people have called on governments to permanently increase taxes on them and other members of the wealthy elite to help pay for the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.
- A new report by Oxfam warns that the hunger crisis worsened by the pandemic could potentially kill more people each day than the infection itself, which has claimed more than half a million lives so far.
-
The US state of Florida has registered 15,300 new infections on Sunday, the biggest daily increase in recorded coronavirus cases in any US state since the beginning of the pandemic.
- Current hospitalisations in the US state of Texas rose by 327 to a new high of 10,410, a record high for the 14th day in a row.
- South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has reinstated a ban on the sale of alcohol to reduce the volume of trauma patients so that hospitals have more beds to treat Covid-19 patients.
- The Palestinian Authority on Sunday imposed a night-time and weekend curfew on the occupied West Bank for the coming 14 days to try to rein in rising coronavirus numbers.
Updated
Super-rich call for higher taxes on wealthy to pay for Covid-19 recovery
A group of 84 of the world’s richest people have called on governments to permanently increase taxes on them and other members of the wealthy elite to help pay for the economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis.
“As Covid-19 strikes the world, millionaires like us have a critical role to play in healing our world,” the millionaires said in a letter shared with the Guardian. “No, we are not the ones caring for the sick in intensive care wards. We are not driving the ambulances that will bring the ill to hospitals. We are not restocking grocery store shelves or delivering food door to door.
“But we do have money, lots of it. Money that is desperately needed now and will continue to be needed in the years ahead, as our world recovers from this crisis.”
Here’s the full story on the cases in the Australian state of Victoria:
Victoria recorded 177 new Covid-19 cases overnight as a significant aged care cluster emerged and the state government launched an online mental health program for young people.
There are now 1,612 active cases in the state with 72 Victorians in hospital and 17 in intensive care.
While there was a lower number of cases reported on Monday than previous days, chief health officer Prof Brett Sutton said it was too soon to say if Victoria’s lockdowns had successfully reduced infection rates.
“[It’s] clearly lower than the maximum number that we’ve had on any one day … it’s great it’s lower than our peak,” Sutton said.
“But it may not be our peak yet. So I would like to see a week of decreasing numbers before I come and say I have greater confidence about the direction we’re going in.”
A number of clusters increased significantly overnight, including the Menarock Life aged care facility in Essendon, which grew by 15 cases to 26. It is now the largest Victorian aged care cluster ever.
Japan and the United States are sharing information about coronavirus cases at US military bases in Okinawa prefecture, a government spokesman said on Monday, after 62 new cases were confirmed at three bases.
Okinawa prefecture said 39 people at Marine Corps Air Station Futenma, 22 people in Camp Hansen and 1 person in Camp Kinser had tested positive for Covid-19 between 7 July through 12.
“Japan and the US are sharing information about activity history of infected military individuals,” Suga said at a regular news briefing.
Honduras will extend its coronavirus curfew for another week in an effort to tame the coronavirus pandemic, the security ministry said on Sunday.
Honduras first imposed a curfew in March but the government has in recent weeks been talking about slowly reopening businesses to help the economy.
Mainland China reported eight new Covid-19 cases as of the end of 12 July, up from seven reported a day earlier, the Chinese national health authority said on Monday.
The National Health Commission said in a statement that all of the new cases were imported infection involving travellers from overseas, the same as the seven cases a day earlier. The capital city of Beijing reported no new confirmed cases for the seventh consecutive day.
The Commission also reported six new asymptomatic patients, those who are infected with the coronavirus but have no symptoms, compared with five a day earlier. China does not consider such patients as confirmed cases.
Total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases for mainland China now stands at 83,602, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
Hong Kong health authorities are continuing to battle its worst virus outbreak yet. It saw a rise in cases in March as people began returning from overseas, prompting increased social distancing measures and restrictions which had started to ease in recent weeks.
On Sunday another 38 new cases were confirmed, including 30 local transmissions. Of the 30, 13 have an unknown source.
“I think that both the Government and the public may have to tighten up the measures to maintain social distancing and avoid going out as much as possible to try to curb the this epidemic, said Communicable Disease Branch Head Dr Chuang Shuk kwan.
The city state – which shares a border with mainland China – initially drew praise for its success in keeping the outbreak largely contained in the early months.
Now health officials are warning of record high levels of community transmission and a rising reproduction number (how many people one infected person is likely to pass the virus on to).
On Sunday the head of Hong Kong University’s school of medicine, Dr Gabriel Leung, told local media today that the reproductive number of the virus has risen to nearly four.
“Given the high baseline rate and [that] there is no sign of abatement of this trajectory and that real-time reproductive number of three to four, I think that we have now, or we have already entered Hong Kong’s first sustained local outbreak”, Leung said.
Updated
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 159 to 198,963, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Monday.
The reported death toll rose by one to 9,064, the tally showed.
New Zealand’s health minister has voiced displeasure at Australia’s plan to resume deportations in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic.
A secure isolation hotel is being prepared in Auckland to quarantine 30 New Zealand deportees from Australia; the first arrivals since Covid-19 gripped both sides of the Tasman.
Health minister Chris Hipkins said: “We’re receiving them because we’re obliged to receive them but it would be wrong to say we’re happy about it. However, Australia is within its legal right to do what they’re doing.”
Hipkins said the utmost would be done to ensure they were effectively quarantined, and safely released into the community.
Mexico's deaths pass Italy’s to become fourth-highest worldwide
Mexico’s coronavirus death toll passed Italy’s on Sunday, AFP reports, becoming the fourth-highest globally, with at least 35,006 fatalities over the course of the pandemic so far.
Mexico has 295,268 confirmed cases.
Italy has 295,268 cases and 34,954 deaths.
Updated
It’s always good to hear from you – you can send me news, tips, suggestions, extravagant gifts on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
A friendly reminder:
Philippines reports record new deaths
The Philippines’ health ministry on Monday confirmed 162 new coronavirus deaths, the country’s biggest single-day increase in casualties, as a health ministry official said authorities validated some earlier cases included in the tally.
The ministry said total deaths had reached 1,534, while confirmed infections rose 2,124 to 56,259.
“As part of ongoing data harmonisation, we cannot avoid seeing cases not yet included in our official death count,” Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire told a news conference.
Of the 162 casualties, more than half died in June and a third in July, she said, adding that the ministry expects more to be reported because of our data reconciliation efforts.
Updated
In Australia, a guard working at a makeshift immigration detention centre at Melbourne’s Mantra Bell City hotel in Preston has tested positive for Covid-19.
The third floor of the hotel is being used as a detention centre for about 65 refugees and asylum seekers brought to Australia under the repealed medevac laws.
The Department of Home Affairs told Guardian Australia that the guard had tested positive on 8 July after developing symptoms the day before. He had not worked at the hotel since 4 July and had minimal contact with other staff or detainees.
Australian Border Force staff informed the men of the diagnosis late on Sunday night.
A refugee present told Guardian Australia that “tension was high” at the meeting, and that the men expressed their fears of contracting the coronavirus. Men had seen workers with protective gear cleaning the hotel earlier that morning.
30-year-old dies after attending 'Covid party' in Texas
A 30-year-old patient died after attending a “Covid party”, believing the virus to be a hoax, a Texas medical official has said.
“Just before the patient died, they looked at their nurse and said ‘I think I made a mistake, I thought this was a hoax, but it’s not,’” said Dr Jane Appleby, the chief medical officer at Methodist hospital in San Antonio.
Appleby said: “I don’t want to be an alarmist, and we’re just trying to share some real-world examples to help our community realise that this virus is very serious and can spread easily.”
A “Covid party” is a gathering held by somebody diagnosed with coronavirus to see if the virus is real and to see if anyone gets infected, she explained.
Appleby said in her filmed comments at the weekend that she had been spurred to reveal the case after seeing a “concerning” rise in infections. She said 22% of tests were revealing a case of Covid-19, up from just 5% a few weeks ago.
A broader age range were being affected, with several 20 and 30 year olds critically ill at the Methodist hospital, she said.
Updated
Australian state of Victoria records 177 new cases
Victorian premier Daniel Andrews says Victoria has recorded 177 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday.
It brings the state total to 3,967.
More than 22,000 people were tested yesterday.
Two Madagascar lawmakers die with coronavirus
Madagascar President Andry Rajoelina on Sunday said two lawmakers - one member of the senate and one deputy - had died after becoming infected with coronavirus.
Eleven other deputies and 14 senators had also tested positive for the virus, Rajoelina said. The Indian Ocean island on 5 July placed its capital Antananarivo under a fresh lockdown following a new surge in infections, two months after the restrictions were eased, AFP reports.
It has recorded 2,573 infections including 35 deaths with the government estimating that the peak will not be reached until the end of August.
In April, Rajoelina launched a local herbal concoction he claimed prevents and cures the novel coronavirus.
He has since been promoting the brew for export, saying it is the country’s “green gold” which will “change history”.
The potential benefits of Covid-Organics, a tonic derived from artemisia - a plant with proven efficacy in malaria treatment - and other indigenous herbs, have not been validated by any scientific study.
Ten million kids ‘may never return to school’ after virus
The coronavirus pandemic has caused an “unprecedented education emergency” with up to 9.7 million children affected by school closures at risk of never going back to class, Save the Children warned Monday.
The British charity cited UNESCO data showing that in April, 1.6 billion young people were shut out of school and university due to measures to contain Covid-19 - about 90% of the world’s entire student population, AFP reports.
“For the first time in human history, an entire generation of children globally have had their education disrupted,” it said in a new report, Save our Education.
It said the economic fall-out of the crisis could force an extra 90 to 117 million children into poverty, with a knock-on effect on school admissions.
With many young people required to work or girls forced into early marriage to support their families, this could see between seven and 9.7 million children dropping out of school permanently.
At the same time, the charity warned the crisis could leave a shortfall of $77 billion in education budgets in low and middle income countries by the end of 2021.
The charity urged governments and donors to invest more funds behind a new global education plan to help children back into school when it is safe and until then support distance learning.
Updated
Australian state of New South Wales records 14 cases
The Australian state of New South Wales has recorded 14 new cases of coronavirus in the 24-hours to 8pm last night.
Eight of the new cases are connected to a cluster at a clyster at a restaurant and pub, the Crossroads Hotel. They include five people who had attended the hotel and three of their close contacts.
Four of those cases had already been reported to the media so the number of cases connected to the cluster has increased to 13.
Only four of the new cases were returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
Two cases were in NSW residents who picked up the virus in Victoria and have been self-isolating since returning to NSW.
NSW Health confirmed that a number of ADF members were in self-isolation after attending the Crossroads Hotel but so far none have tested positive.
To slow the spread of the coronavirus, governments issued lockdowns to keep people at home. They curtailed activities that affected services like trash collection. They tried to shield hospitals from a surge of patients, AP reports.
But the cascading effects of these restrictions also are hampering efforts to cope with seasonal outbreaks of dengue, an incurable, mosquito-borne disease that is also known as breakbone fever” for its severely painful symptoms.
Southeast Asian countries like Singapore and Indonesia have dealt with concurrent outbreaks of dengue and coronavirus this year. In Brazil, where there are over 1.6 million Covid-19 infections, at least 1.1 million cases of dengue have been reported, with nearly 400 deaths, according to the Pan American Health Organization.
Dengue cases are likely to rise soon with the start of seasonal rains in Latin American countries like Cuba, Chile and Costa Rica, as well as the South Asian countries of India and Pakistan.
Dengue typically isnt fatal, but severe cases may require hospitalization. Prevention efforts targeted at destroying mosquito-breeding sites, like removing trash or old tires and other objects containing standing water, are still the best ways to curb the spread of the disease. But coronavirus-era lockdowns and other restrictions have meant that these efforts have been reduced or stopped altogether in many countries.
In the UK, more than 100 outbreaks of coronavirus are cropping up every week, health secretary Matt Hancock has revealed, announcing that there would be “more targeted local action and less national lockdown”.
The Hancock wrote in an article in the Telegraph that small localised lockdowns in affected communities and new portable walk-in centres were helping to get many outbreaks under control “swiftly and silently”.
The lockdown imposed on Leicester after a surge in infections, the first of its kind in the country, will be reviewed by Hancock this week.
The paper reports that door-to-door testing, which was used in the worst-hit areas of Leicester, is to be used more widely to curb outbreaks in the coming months. Portable walk-in centres will also be stationed in areas where there is a flare-up of the virus:
In the US, the federal Bureau of Prisons said Sunday that a staff member involved in preparing for the first federal executions in nearly two decades has tested positive for coronavirus, AP reports.
The Justice Department said the development will not mean an additional delay in the governments timetable, already stalled by a federal court, because the worker had not been in the execution chamber and had not come into contact with anyone on the specialised team sent to the prison to handle the execution.
The agency made the disclosure in court filings in response to lawsuits that have sought to halt executions scheduled to resume Monday.
An attorney for the Bureau of Prisons said the staff member learned on Wednesday that the staffer had been in close contact with someone who tested positive for Covid-19. The staff member immediately left work and notified the bureau Saturday about the positive test, according to the court filing.
The staff member did not wear a mask at all times during meetings with other Bureau of Prisons employees and other law enforcement officials in the days before learning of the exposure, the agency said. The bureau says the staff member did not enter the execution facility or the prisons command center and left the facility before the dozens of Bureau of Prisons employees who are part of the team handling the executions arrived at Terre Haute.
The Bureau of Prisons also started contact tracing to identify other staff members who may have had contact with the employee who tested positive, officials said.
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In Canada, the Premier of Ontario province, Doug Ford, will announce details on Monday about the province’s third stage of reopening, his office said on Sunday, a step likely to end most restrictions introduced in March to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus, Reuters reports.
Stage 3 will allow “most remaining workplaces and community spaces” to reopen, according to the province’s website, although “large public gatherings will continue to be restricted.”
Canada’s most-populous province and the country’s economic engine laid out a three-stage framework in April for reopening, allowing the whole province into the first stage on 19 May. Many regions in the province were able to move to Stage 2 on 12 June, which allowed for the reopening of restaurant patios and hair salons.
But harder-hit areas - including densely populated Toronto, and Windsor Essex, a region near the Ontario-Michigan border with clusters of cases among agricultural workers - were not able to graduate to the second stage until late June and early July.
Ontario, with a population of 14.6 million, reported 129 new Covid-19 cases and three deaths on Saturday, according to public health agency data. Ontario has the second-highest number of cases and deaths behind Quebec.
Canada has reported 107,347 cases since the pandemic began, including 8,773 deaths, according to the latest government data.
Brazil, the world’s number two coronavirus hot spot after the United States, registered 631 new deaths on Sunday, with a new total of 1,864,681 confirmed cases, the Health Ministry said.
Brazil now has an official total of 72,100 deaths, the ministry said. The numbers of deaths and cases are usually lower on the weekend because of patchy reporting. Experts say the true totals are likely far higher due to a lack of testing.
WHO reports record rise in global infections
The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 230,370 in 24 hours.
The biggest increases were from the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa, according to a daily report. The previous WHO record for new cases was 228,102 on 10 July.
Global deaths remain steady at about 5,000 a day. Global coronavirus cases are approaching 13 million, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, with 12,826,729 currently confirmed.
The disease has so far killed more than 567,123 people in seven months.
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South Africa reimposes ban on alcohol sales
South Africa re-imposed a nationwide curfew on Sunday in response to what South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called a “coronavirus storm” that was “far fiercer and more destructive than any we have known before”.
Ramaphosa re-imposed a night-time curfew and also a ban on alcohol sales barely six weeks after buying booze had become legal again.
“As we head towards the peak of infections, it is vital that we do not burden our clinics and hospitals with alcohol-related injuries,” Ramaphosa said.
New coronavirus infections have topped 12,000 per day - or 500 per hour - in South Africa in recent days, making it the fourth-biggest contributor to new worldwide cases after the United States, Brazil and India.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest news from around the world for the next few hours.
As always, it would be good to hear from you – send news, tips, suggestions, extravagant gifts on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
On Sunday, the World Health Organization reported that cases rose by a record one-day total of 230,370. The biggest increases were recorded in the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa.
South Africa’s infections are climbing towards 300,000. In response to the worsening crisis, the country’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has reinstated a ban on the sale of alcohol in order to reduce the volume of trauma patients, so that hospitals have more beds to treat Covid-19 cases.
- The World Health Organization reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 230,370 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were recorded in the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa.
- A new report by Oxfam warns that the hunger crisis worsened by the pandemic could potentially kill more people each day than the infection itself, which has claimed more than half a million lives so far.
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The US state of Florida has registered 15,300 new infections on Sunday, the biggest daily increase in recorded coronavirus cases in any US state since the beginning of the pandemic.
- Current hospitalisations in the US state of Texas rose by 327 to a new high of 10,410, a record high for the 14th day in a row.
- South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has reinstated a ban on the sale of alcohol to reduce the volume of trauma patients so that hospitals have more beds to treat Covid-19 patients.
- The Palestinian Authority on Sunday imposed a night-time and weekend curfew on the occupied West Bank for the coming 14 days to try to rein in rising coronavirus numbers.
- Mexico’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is poised to overtake Italy’s and shoot above 35,000 on Sunday.
- The government of Spain’s Catalonia region on Sunday ordered residents in and around the north-eastern city of Lleida to go back into home confinement as cases of coronavirus rose.
- Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Sunday that his country had brought coronavirus under control and that it was time to focus on restarting the economy. Prime minister Omar al-Razzaz promised on Sunday to deepen a crackdown on the country’s rampant tax evasion.
- Nightclubs and discos in Bulgaria will be allowed to reopen, just three days after all indoor bars were ordered to shut and despite a continuing rise in coronavirus cases in the country.
- Lebanon has recorded a new infection high, as the health ministry said a total of 166 new cases had been confirmed in the last 24 hours.
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