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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
World
Jessica Murray (now); Ben Quinn, Amelia Hill and Alison Rourke (earlier)

Greece reports spike in cases as Danish expert advises against easing – as it happened

We’re closing this blog up now but you can follow all the developments at our new blog here:

A technical problem has caused a lag in California’s tally of coronavirus test results, casting doubt on the accuracy of recent data showing improvements in the infection rate and number of positive cases, and hindering efforts to track the spread, the state’s top health official said.

Health and human services secretary Dr Mark Ghaly said in recent days California has not been receiving a full count of tests conducted, or positive results, through electronic lab reports due to the unresolved issue, which he did not describe in detail.

The state’s data page now carries a disclaimer saying the numbers represent “an underreporting of actual positive cases” per day.

The latest daily tally posted Tuesday showed 4,526 new confirmed positives, the lowest total in more than six weeks and a precipitous drop from the record nearly 13,000 reported two weeks ago.

County health officials have posted notices on their sites advising of the lag and that a drop in cases might not paint a full picture.

People line up at a mobile coronavirus testing site at the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles.
People line up at a mobile coronavirus testing site at the Charles Drew University of Medicine and Science in Los Angeles. Photograph: Marcio José Sánchez/AP

Wendy Hetherington, Riverside county’s chief of epidemiology and program evaluation, said she believes hundreds of cases a day haven’t been reported in her county.

The under-count impedes the ability to find newly infected individuals and quickly contact those who have been in close contact with them so they can self-quarantine to avoid spreading the disease.

She said: “We can’t tell how well we’re doing until this issue is resolved.”

Even with the under-reporting of cases, California has recorded more positive tests than any other state, about 520,000.

On Monday, Governor Gavin Newsom gave his most optimistic report on the state’s virus efforts since a second surge of cases in early June.

He noted daily cases had dropped by an average of 2,200 in the last week and the infection rate of 6.1% was significantly lower than the nearly 8% recorded last month.

Ghaly acknowledged the rate Newsom highlighted was based on incomplete data and that missing data is being inputted manually. He stressed that looking at one- and two-week trends can help account for missing data from individual days.

Ghaly said hospitalisation data which doesn’t run through the same troubled system has seen signs of improvement.

The latest count Tuesday showed 6,302 people were hospitalised, a 12% drop from the high recorded in July. Deaths have now topped 9,500.

Summary

Here are the latest global coronavirus updates from the last few hours:

  • France says its “situation is precarious” and warns second wave likely in autumn or winter. The warning comes as authorities seek to contain an increase in new cases over the past two weeks.
  • Number of French Covid-19 patients in intensive care rises for second day. The number of people in ICU rose by four to 388 after it rose by 13 on Monday, reversing a downtrend that has been in place for 16 weeks.
  • Rafael Nadal withdraws from US Open over Covid concerns. The four-time winner at Flushing Meadows does not want to travel to the United States while Covid-19 cases are on the rise.
  • Turkey tightens containment measures after virus rebounds. The country tightened coronavirus rules, including daily quarantine inspections, new tracing oversights and measures for weddings and funerals, after new daily cases jumped above 1,000 for the first time in three weeks.
  • Ireland cancels plans to re-open pubs on Monday. The Irish prime minister announced that further plans for easing of lockdown measures are to be put on hold and face coverings will be mandatory in shops from 10 August.
  • Greece reports 121 new coronavirus cases, highest number in weeks. Authorities reported 121 new coronavirus cases, the highest since 22 April, after a steady rise over the past 10 days.
  • Germany football league “ready” for fans to return. The league’s 36 professional clubs have decided on a uniform procedure for the possible return of some fans to the stadiums, if authorities give the go-ahead.
  • Danish state epidemiologist advises against lockdown easing. Kare Molbak said he could not recommend proceeding to the next phase of reopening society during the coronavirus outbreak.
  • The number of confirmed Covid-19 infections in the Netherlands almost doubled last week. A further 2,588 new cases were reported over the past week, 1,259 more than were reported the week before.
  • Poland reports record daily increase for fourth time in a week. The latest tally of 680 new infections and six deaths comes as Poland considers introducing stricter restrictions, including mandatory testing for travellers returning to Poland and quarantine for those coming from certain countries.

Updated

Covid-19 cases almost double in the Netherlands

The number of confirmed Covid-19 infections in the Netherlands almost doubled last week, according to government data released today.

A further 2,588 new cases were reported over the past week, 1,259 more than were reported the week before.

There were major regional differences in the uptick, with the province of South Holland in particular showing an increase in cases.

There are now 242 known active Covid-19 clusters in the country, an increase of 109 clusters of three or more related infections compared to the previous week.

Covid-19 hospital admissions (current and previous) were reported during the past week for 44 patients - 21 more than last week.

Updated

Walt Disney’s live-action version of Mulan will skip most of the world’s movie theatres and go directly to its streaming platform in September, the media giant has said.

The decision follows uncertainty about when big cinema chains in the US will be able to reopen after being shuttered since mid-March because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Mulan will cost a premium price of $29.99 on the Disney+ streaming service in the United States, Canada, Australia and parts of Western Europe, Disney’s chief executive, Bob Chapek, said.

The movie, reported to have cost $200m to produce, will be released on 4 September in cinemas in areas that do not currently have the Disney+ platform and where movie theatres are open, Chapek added.

Mulan had been scheduled to reach cinemas in March, but its release has been postponed several times as many cinemas remain closed.

Most recently, it was set to debut 21 August, and theatre operators had hoped it would help spark a late-summer rebound for movie-going.

The UK’s Tuesday newspaper front pages have started coming in, with a number leading on coronavirus-related stories.

The Guardian has an exclusive on Labour leader Keir Starmer saying ministers have one month to fix the broken test-and-trace system and halt a devastating second wave of coronavirus.

He warned there is “precious little evidence” of serious preparation for a resurgence in Covid-19 cases.

The Telegraph leads on comments from the Children’s Commissioner arguing that if a trade off has to be made, pubs and shops should be shut to allow schools to open.

Anne Longfield said schools should only be closed as a last resort when all other options have been exhausted.

The Daily Mail reports that those suffering from heart conditions, strokes, diabetes and lung disease are among the worst affected by NHS delays caused by the pandemic, according to a survey of senior doctors.

Metro leads on a report by MPs which found dropping checks and restrictions on travellers entering the country in mid-March was a “grave error” that “significantly increased” the spread of the virus.

The i looks at personal protective equipment and the way in which NHS staff were forced to turn to fashion stores and volunteers for supplies during the height of the outbreak in the UK.

The newspaper says its audit of hundreds of financial records show vast emergency spending in the wake of PPE distribution failures.

Finally, the Yorkshire Post reports the shift to work from home could help transform the rural economy, with more employees given the opportunity to work from small towns and villages.

Rafael Nadal withdraws from US Open over Covid concerns

Defending champion Rafael Nadal has pulled out of the US Open citing concerns over coronavirus. The four-time winner at Flushing Meadows does not want to travel to the United States while Covid-19 cases are on the rise.

He joins women’s world number one Ashleigh Barty in pulling out of the tournament due to the threat of coronavirus.

“After many thoughts I have decided not to play this year’s US Open. The situation is very complicated worldwide, the COVID-19 cases are increasing, it looks like we still don’t have control of it,” Nadal wrote.

“This is a decision I never wanted to take but I have decided to follow my heart this time and for the time being I rather not travel.”

The 2020 international tennis calendar had earlier dwindled to a handful of events when the Madrid Open became the latest and least surprising casualty of the pandemic.

In a joint statement, the ATP and the WTA said the seemingly inevitable cancellation of the first of two remaining clay Masters events before the rescheduled French Open in September was “a decision that has been taken in line with local authorities due to health and safety concerns”.

Updated

Walt Disney has reported a rare quarterly loss as the Covid-19 pandemic pummeled its theme parks, television networks and movie studio businesses, even as the crisis helped its streaming services gain users.

The outbreak forced the company to close some of its parks globally, delay the release of films, including the much-anticipated Mulan, while also dampening advertising on its media networks segment that includes the sports-starved ESPN.

Net loss from continuing operations was $4.72bn, or $2.61 per share, in the third quarter ended 27 June, compared with a net profit of $1.43bn, or 79 cents per share, a year earlier.

Novavax has said its experimental Covid-19 vaccine produced antibodies against the coronavirus and appears to be safe, according to initial data from a small, early-stage clinical trial.

The Maryland-based biotechnology company said its vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373, produced higher levels of the antibodies in healthy volunteers after two doses than those found in recovered Covid-19 patients, raising hopes for its eventual success.

The addition of its Matrix-M adjuvant, a substance designed to boost the body’s immune response, did enhance the effect of the vaccine in the study, the company said.

The Novavax vaccine is among the first of a handful of programmes singled out for US funding under Operation Warp Speed, the White House programme to accelerate access to vaccines and treatments that can fight the virus.

Novavax research chief Gregory Glenn told Reuters the company will start much larger late-stage clinical trials soon and could potentially glean enough data to obtain regulatory approvals as early as December.

The US government in July agreed to pay Novavax $1.6bn to help cover costs related to testing and manufacturing the vaccine, with the aim of procuring 100m doses by January 2021.

The trial, which started in late May, tested the vaccine in 106 subjects aged 18 to 59 versus a placebo.

The company said the second vaccination induced greater levels of side effects such as swelling and pain at the injection site, which are not considered serious, with only one participant experiencing fever.

The Phase II portion of the study will be conducted in multiple countries, including the US. It will gauge the vaccine’s ability to prevent infections or reduce severity of Covid-19, in addition to safety and immune response, among a broader range of volunteers.

Updated

France’s Accor, the world’s sixth largest hotel chain, said it was slashing 1,000 jobs worldwide in a major cost cutting plan accelerated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The group, which runs high-end chains such as Raffles and Sofitel, and budget brands like Ibis, plans to cut costs by €200m by 2022.

The pandemic has led to the closure of several Accor hotels around the world and 1,000 of the group’s 18,000 employees will lose their jobs, financial chief Jean-Jacques Morin said.

“It is difficult to implement cost saving measures in our industry without it having an effect on staff,” Morin said.

“We will help them,” he said, of the 1,000 people to be laid off.

Accor posted half-year net losses of €1.5bn ($1.7bn) against profits of €141m during the same period last year.

“The bad half-year results reflect the extraordinary environment linked to the coronavirus crisis,” Morin said.

“The shock that our industry is experiencing is both violent and unprecedented,” Accor CEO Sebastien Bazin said.

After weeks of railing against what he claimed were the potential risks of voting by mail, president Donald Trump has urged voters in at least one Republican state - Florida - to vote by any means.

Trump, who is trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in polls, has repeatedly warned in recent weeks - without evidence - that mail-in voting carries more risks than voting by absentee ballot and could result in widespread fraud.

Voting by mail has been embraced as a way to limit exposure to Covid-19. Most absentee ballots are also conducted by mail.

On Tuesday, Trump suggested there was no difference after all, and urged voters in the key state of Florida to trust their voting system.

“Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA,” Trump wrote.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said the president remained concerned about “mass mail-out voting,” such as that planned in Nevada and California’s Los Angeles county, but not absentee ballots that require a proactive request by voters.

Trump on Monday vowed to sue Nevada, which plans to send mail-in ballots to every voter ahead of the 3 November presidential election in light of the coronavirus pandemic.

Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah and Washington already conduct their elections entirely by mail, while California and Vermont have decided to do so this year due to the pandemic.

The issue has spawned partisan litigation in dozens of states over issues like absentee ballots and signature requirements.

Democrats and voting rights groups have warned that cost-saving measures instituted at the Postal Service by a Trump financial backer who is now the postmaster general could lead to delays in service just as voting by mail ramps up.

Turkey clamps down again after 'severe' jump in virus

Turkey has rolled out new inspection and enforcement rules after coronavirus cases jumped above 1,000 for the first time in three weeks, in what the government called a grave rise during peak holiday season.

Top doctors have warned about insufficient testing and urged a tougher message from Ankara, which lifted a partial lockdown in June and has since lobbied hard for countries to allow tourists to visit to help get the economy back on its feet.

President Tayyip Erdoğan’s government had called 1,000 a critical threshold to reconsider rules.

On Tuesday it adopted daily quarantine inspections, new tracing oversight in all cities and measures for weddings, funerals and other large gatherings, although it avoided broad curbs on economic activity.

The interior ministry said the nationwide rules - including some fines for violations - were needed to sustain the fight against the pandemic that has killed 5,765 and infected 234,934 in Turkey.

The central city of Kirikkale will pilot a new call centre that checks complaints about citizens ignoring face masks and other rules, and for a “safe area” rewards system for business that abide by them, the ministry said.

The 1,083 new Covid-19 cases reflect a “severe” rise after a four-day holiday weekend, health minister Fahrettin Koca wrote on Twitter, urging Turks to avoid unnecessary contact so that their vacations do not have grave consequences.

New cases had hovered just below 1,000 since 13 July.
The government has not publicly disclosed the number of critical care or intubated patients since 29 July, raising questions among some experts even while more than 40,000 tests have been logged daily.

Dr Bülent Yilmaz, general secretary of the Turkish Medical Association, said people at risk were missing out on tests.

“Most of the tests are done to those who need routine tests. It seems that those who are in real trouble and risk groups are not sufficiently tested,” Yilmaz told Reuters.

Turks ignoring social distancing on vacation was troubling, he added.

The images from the beaches are grim, but you cannot really blame people.

The government needs to show the situation is serious so that people can take it seriously, too.

Germany, Turkey’s second biggest source of tourists, has lifted a travel warning on four Turkish seaside provinces with low infection rates to help revive tourism.

Updated

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, returned to work at the White House on Tuesday following his recovery from a mild case of Covid-19, a National Security Council spokesman said.

O’Brien “has already met with the president, who warmly welcomed him back to the West Wing”, spokesman John Ullyot said.

“He has been cleared by doctors after two negative tests for the virus, and has been asymptomatic for over a week,” Ullyot added.

Updated

A bipartisan group of state attorneys general have urged the US government to allow other companies to make Gilead Sciences’ Covid-19 treatment, remdesivir, to increase its availability and lower the price of the antiviral drug.

The coalition of more than 30 state attorneys general called on the government to act or allow states to do so, saying in a letter to US health agencies that Gilead “has not established a reasonable price” for remdesivir.

“Gilead should not profit from the pandemic and it should be pushed to do more to help more people,” the letter said.

The drugmaker is charging most US patients $3,120 per course, or $520 per vial of remdesivir.

The medicine is one of only two that have demonstrated an ability to help hospitalised Covid-19 patients in formal clinical trials.

It received emergency use authorisation (EUA) in the US and approval in other countries after it shortened hospital stays in a large US trial.

In the letter, the coalition, led by Louisiana attorney general Jeff Landry and California attorney general Xavier Becerra, urged the federal government to exercise its rights under the Bayh-Dole Act and license remdesivir to third-party manufacturers to scale up production.

The US government, which provided some financial backing for the drug’s development, signed a deal with Gilead in June for more than 500,000 courses of the treatment, making up most of the company’s output through September.

Gilead agreed to send nearly all of its remdesivir supply to the US between July and September.

The government said it would receive around 94,000 treatment courses in July, 175,000 in August, and another 233,000 in September.

Still, the drug has been in scarce supply since the US EUA in May, and hospital staffers and politicians have complained about difficulties getting access to it.

“Shipments are coordinated by the federal [government] and we have a bad disconnect between what they think we need and what we really need,” US senator Marco Rubio of Florida tweeted last month, before announcing further allocation to his hard-hit state.

Over the past four weeks, just under half of the US remdesivir supply has gone to Covid-19 hotspots Florida, Texas, California and Arizona.

Gilead has teamed up with generic drugmakers based in India and Pakistan, including Cipla Ltd and Hetero Labs Ltd, to make and supply remdesivir in 127 developing countries. But only limited production has begun.

Last month, Cipla priced its generic version of remdesivir at $53.34 per 100 milligram vial, roughly one-tenth of the US price.

Updated

Number of French Covid-19 patients in intensive care rises for second day

The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units in French hospitals rose for the second day in a row, reversing a downtrend that has been in place for 16 weeks, health ministry data showed.

The ministry said the number of people in ICU rose by four to 388 after it rose by 13 on Monday. No ICU data was reported over the weekend.

The number of people in ICU has fallen virtually every day without interruption since reaching a high of 7,148 on 8 April, except for two one-day increases in July that had both been followed by the resumption of the downtrend.

The ministry also said the number of confirmed coronavirus infections rose by another 1,039 to 192,334 in the past 24 hours and that the overall number of people hospitalised with the virus fell by 36 to 5,162.

The death toll from the virus in France increased by just two to 30,296, the lowest single-day figure since the start of the pandemic in mid-March.

Earlier on Tuesday, the government’s top scientific body warned that a second wave of the pandemic is highly likely to hit France in the autumn or winter.

Updated

The Greek government’s chief top scientific adviser on coronavirus has warned that the country must remain vigilant after authorities confirmed 121 new cases in the last 24 hours, the largest number since the end of April.

Sotiris Tsiodras said the jump in infections was due to wider testing and the arrival of tourists and the increase in people’s movement, the Greek media portal Kathimerini reported, but most infections detected are domestic.

A waiter wears a protective face mask in Athens, Greece, 1 August 2020.
A waiter wears a protective face mask in Athens, Greece, 1 August, 2020. Photograph: Costas Baltas/Reuters

Updated

Young people who are going to nightclubs and beaches are leading a rise in fresh coronavirus cases across the world, with the proportion of those aged 15 to 24 who are infected rising three-fold in about five months, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

An analysis by the WHO of 6 million infections between 24 February and 12 July found that the share of people infected aged 15-24 years rose to 15% from 4.5%.

Apart from the US, which leads a global tally with 4.8 million total cases, European countries including Spain, Germany and France, and Asian countries such as Japan, have said that many of the newly infected are young people.

“Younger people tend to be less vigilant about masking and social distancing,” Neysa Ernst, nurse manager at Johns Hopkins Hospital’s biocontainment unit in Baltimore, Maryland, told Reuters in an email.

Updated

Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over the coronavirus live blog for the next few hours.

Please do get in touch with any suggestions or story tips.

Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_

Ireland cancels plans to re-open pubs on Monday

A spike in Covid-19 across Europe has led to five countries being removed from Ireland’s ‘green list’ of states deemed safe for non-essential travel.

Malta, Cyprus, San Marino, Gibraltar and Monaco have been removed from the list following a meeting of Irish government ministers earlier.

The Irish prime minister has also announced that further plans for easing of lockdown measures are to be put on hold. Moves on Monday to open pubs not serving food will no longer go ahead.

There’s the announcement – via a tweet from RTE – of the announcement by Micheál Martin.

Martin also said that face coverings will be mandatory in shops and shopping centres from 10 August.

“When people are give a clear direction, they follow it,” he told a briefing in Dublin.

Updated

Demand for a counselling service for young people in the Australian state of Victoria increased 8% in July compared with the previous month, as much of the state returned to lockdown and remote education.

A spokeswoman for Kids Helpline said the Victorian figure contrasted with a national increase of 2% over the same period. The phone and online counselling service targets young people aged five to 25.

The top five concerns raised by Victorian children and young people in July were mental health, emotional wellbeing, family relationship issues, suicide-related issues and friend/peer relationships.

On 7 July, Victoria reimposed stage three restrictions across metropolitan Melbourne and the Mitchell shire in a bid to slow the virus, but some hotspot suburbs and public housing towers were under restrictions prior to then. On Sunday, stage four restrictions were introduced across metropolitan Melbourne.

A Melbourne playground shut during the coronavirus pandemic. Kids Helpline says demand in Victoria increased 8% in July, compared with a national rise of 2%
A Melbourne playground shut during the coronavirus pandemic. Kids Helpline says demand in Victoria increased 8% in July, compared with a national rise of 2% Photograph: Daniel Pockett/Getty Images

Infrastructure projects in Australia’s virus-hit state of Victoria could become a lower priority because restrictions and capacity constraints will limit the ability to deliver them, the chief executive of Infrastructure Australia has warned.

Romilly Madew made the comments ahead of the release on Wednesday of Infrastructure Australia’s mid-year priority update, which adds 12 new projects and initiatives to a list of 155 nationally significant proposals worth more than $64bn.

The 2020 international tennis calendar dwindled to a handful of events on Tuesday when the Madrid Open became the latest and least surprising casualty of the pandemic.

In a joint statement, the ATP and the WTA said the seemingly inevitable cancellation of the first of two remaining clay Masters events before the rescheduled French Open in September was “a decision that has been taken in line with local authorities due to health and safety concerns”.

The Italian Open in Rome, the other important warm-up event before Roland Garros, is still set to begin on 20 September but there are no guarantees in the schedule, which has been tweaked several times over the past five months. The first tournament since suspension in early March began in Sicily this week, with a weakened field in the Palermo Ladies Open.

Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands celebrates her victory in the final against Simona Halep of Romania during day 8 of the Mutua Madrid Open at La Caja Magica on May 11, 2019 in Madrid, Spain.
Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands celebrates her victory in the final against Simona Halep of Romania during day 8 of the Mutua Madrid Open at La Caja Magica on May 11, 2019 in Madrid, Spain. Photograph: Jean Catuffe/Getty Images

Locked down drinkers in the UK started buying booze online and baking with Baileys but that wasn’t enough to stop profits tumbling at the Guinness and Smirnoff owner Diageo, as Covid-19 forced the closure of pubs and bars.

Operating profit at the global drinks firm fell by 47% to £2.1bn in the year to the end of June, with most of the damage done in the final three months as countries across the world imposed strict lockdown rules.

Sales were down 9% to £11.7bn for the year but plunged 23% in the quarter most affected by the closure of the restaurants, clubs, pubs and bars that sell Diageo’s drinks.

Updated

The number of people claiming temporary coronavirus-related unemployment payments in Ireland has fallen by 5% since last week to leave it 54% below its May peak, data showed.

The government is paying 274,600 people the Pandemic Unemployment Payment, down from a peak of 598,000 on 5 May, the Department of Social Protection said.

An estimated 390,000 employees are currently signed up to a separate wage-subsidy scheme, it said.

Greece reports 121 new coronavirus cases, highest number in weeks

Greece’s top scientific adviser warned against complacency on coronavirus after the country reported its highest single-day increase in infections in weeks.

Authorities reported 121 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday after a steady rise over the past 10 days. Tuesday’s tally was the highest since 22 April, bringing the total number of infections in the country to 4,855.

There have been 209 deaths recorded in total.

Greece introduced an early lockdown in mid-March which buffered the country from the devastating effects of the pandemic seen in many other European countries.

But the recent increase in infections prompted authorities to introduce measures like mandatory face masks in closed spaces.

Professor Sotiris Tsiodras, who gave his first public briefing after a more than two-month hiatus, said there had been no pressure on the public health system, but cautioned that the situation without vigilance could get out of hand.

There must be great vigilance to a possible increase. The situation could quickly get out of hand. It needs vigilance and attention by all.

There were outbreak clusters, he said, in a meat processing unit, and from two wedding parties. Over the past two months, he said, there was a “clear shift” towards the virus affecting younger people.

Many were without symptoms, he said, adding that there had been cases detected after Greece reopened its borders in June. But he said a surge between 31 July and 2 August appeared to be domestic infections.

Zimbabwe’s vice president Constantino Chiwenga has been appointed health minister, the country’s presidency said, one month after his predecessor was sacked over corruption allegations related to coronavirus testing kits.

Former health minister Obadiah Moyo is suspected of illegally awarding a $20 million contract for coronavirus testing. He was arrested in June and was freed on bail pending trial.

“President (Emmerson Mnangagwa) has noted the urgent need to stabilise, restructure and reform the national health delivery system to better cope with challenges of the global Covid-19 pandemic,” the presidency said in a statement.

In Ireland there is expectation that pubs which do not serve food may not be re-opening as planned after all on Monday.

It comes comments earlier to the media by the deputy prime minister before a cabinet meeting where ministers were due to discuss plans and draw advice from the country’s National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET)

Germany has lifted its travel warning for several coastal regions of Turkey, ceding partially to weeks of campaigning by Ankara, whose tourism industry relies heavily on German visitors.

The warning will be lifted with immediate effect for the four coastal provinces of Antalya, Izmir, Aydin and Mugla, government spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said in Berlin.

“Turkey has developed a special tourism and hygiene concept for these four regions in order to realise safe tourism under the conditions of the pandemic,” Demmer said.

Turkey will require anyone travelling back to Germany to present a negative coronavirus test within 48 hours before departure.

Konyaalti beach in the southern resort city of Antalya, Turkey June 19, 2020.
Konyaalti beach in the southern resort city of Antalya, Turkey June 19, 2020. Photograph: Kaan Soyturk/Reuters

South Africa’s ruling ANC party has said that it is “outraged and deeply embarrassed” about alleged corruption among members in relation to the use of funds intended to be used as part of efforts to alleviate the impact of the pandemic.

The Cape Times reports that there are widespread Covid-19-related scandals in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and in the Free State.

Following a meeting on Tuesday of the ANC’s national executive, a statement issued in the name of its secretary-general, Ace Magashule, said:

The ANC is outraged and deeply embarrassed by recent allegations that some, including its own leaders and members, has sought to benefit unlawfully from the devastating suffering and impoverishment caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“These developments cause us collectively to dip our heads in shame and to humble ourselves before the people.

We acknowledge the justifiable public outrage caused by the depravity and heartlessness displayed by some elements in government, our organisation and the private sector.

In Britain, laws enforcing lockdown restrictions in areas of the north of England including Manchester, parts of east Lancashire and West Yorkshire will be effective from midnight.

The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions on Gatherings) (North of England) Regulations 2020 were published on Tuesday afternoon and come into force on Wednesday.

Ministers had said the rules - which ban people from different households meeting in a private home or garden following a spike in coronavirus cases - would apply from midnight on July 31.

Anyone found flouting the rules could be fined 100 up to a maximum of 3,200 for repeat offences.

Dharmendra Pradhan, a minister in the Indian government with responsibility for oil, has said that he has tested positive for Covid-19.

Updated

France’s 320,000 homecare workers are to be given Covid-19 bonuses under a €160 million package unveiled by the French President Emmanuel Macron.

“These men and women were the forgotten ones of the Covid bonus,” Macron said in Toulon.

Black and ethnic minority workers in Britain are overrepresented in the sectors hit worst by the economic crisis, an analysis by the Guardian has found.

As the UK plunges into what is forecast to be the deepest recession for 300 years, the sectors with the highest rates of furloughed jobs and redundancies have disproportionate numbers of BAME workers.

The transport and storage sector has announced the most redundancies, with 34,000 reported as of 28 July, according to a Guardian database tracking job losses.

Black and minority ethnic workers, who make up 12% of the UK workforce, account for 18% of jobs in this industry, according to analysis of the Labour Force Survey.

BA workers protest in London. The company, among those to have made mass job cuts, is in a sector in which BAME people account for 18% of jobs.
BA workers protest in London. The company, among those to have made mass job cuts, is in a sector in which BAME people account for 18% of jobs. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

China is offering loans and priority access to developing countries for vaccinations as large-scale trials come into view, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reports.

“China will not act like some countries and seek a monopoly or buy out vaccines,” a Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson said last month.

However, the SCMP reports that Beijing has not made clear how it would work with local companies to meet its vision for a “global public good” while providing doses for its own population of 1.4 billion.

China is not currently part of Covax, a World Health Organisation-backed umbrella aimed at ensuring fair distribution of vaccines to participating countries.

Nepal, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and the Philippines have all been cited by Chinese diplomats as states that could benefit from China-made vaccines.

The Covid-19 pandemic has prompted a shift in cities to more suburban working, according to IWG, the world’s biggest flexible workspace provider.

Over the past month, the company, formerly known as Regus, has experienced a surge in interest in flexible office space outside the big cities, as well as its homeworking packages, which include furniture rental, insurance, telecoms lines, video conferencing, stationery and repairs.

“It’s a pivot into the suburbs and the rings round London, Birmingham and Manchester,” said Mark Dixon, the IWG chief executive. “The amount of interest in homeworking and local solutions has gone off the charts.”

Two-thirds of IWG’s 3,500 offices around the world are in suburbs and smaller towns, and one-third in bigger cities.

Workspace provider IWG says fear of commuting has turbo-charged move towards more local office facilities
Workspace provider IWG says fear of commuting has turbo-charged move towards more local office facilities Photograph: Joe Giddens/PA

Updated

A Brazilian politician is facing online ridicule for touting ozone therapy by rectal insufflation as a quick and “excellent” treatment for Covid-19.

Volnei Morastoni, the 69-year-old mayor of the southern city of Itajaí, made the claim in a live broadcast on Monday night - footage of which has now gone viral.

“For these [positive Covid-19] cases ... we will offer ozone,” said Morastoni, a trained doctor who has also been promoting the use of the unproven antiparasitic drug Ivermectin.

“It’s a simple and quick procedure - it only takes two or three minutes per day - and is probably carried out via the rectum ...with a very thin catheter that produces excellent results,” he alleged.

Scientists were quick to rubbish Morastoni’s claims - the latest in a series of unproven treatments being pushed by Brazilian politicians, including its far-right president Jair Bolsonaro.

Bolsonaro has positioned himself as a postboy for hydroxychloroquine, a malaria drug whose efficacy against Covid-19 has also not been proven.

Parisian city authorities want to make the wearing of face masks mandatory in certain outdoor areas in order to prevent a new spike of coronavirus infections, Le Monde has reported.

The paper said that mayor Anne Hidalgo would put in a formal request with the Paris prefecture about ordering the use of face coverings in specific areas, after the government on Friday gave local authorities the power to order the wearing of masks in outdoor public spaces.

Ireland might have to consider reopening pubs on a county by county basis, according to Mike Ryan, executive director with the World Health Organisation.

Owners (and customers) of pubs across Ireland are currently waiting for the outcome this evening of a cabinet meeting about returning to business on August 10th, a move which had already been delayed amid concerns over the spread of coronavirus. The move relates to pubs that do not serve food.

“It is a balance [reoepning pubs] and depends on people’s behaviour and how they adap,” Ryan told RTE television today.

“You can use a much more localised strategy – by county, by province, whatever it is in the Irish context – but to do that you need very localised data and a localised response capacity.”

A man walks his dog past coronavirus artwork painted on the shuttered windows of a pub following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dublin, Ireland, May 15, 2020.
A man walks his dog past coronavirus artwork painted on the shuttered windows of a pub following the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), in Dublin, Ireland, May 15, 2020. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

Indonesia will have capacity to produce 250 million doses a year of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020 pending trials on humans, a minister said on Tuesday, as the country seeks to halt a wave of infections that has shown no sign of relent.

Indonesia has confirmed 115,056 cases of Covid-19 and 5,388 deaths since its first infections in March. It has been reporting more than 1,000 new cases on most days since the start of June.

State-run pharmaceutical firm Bio Farma will begin phase three of clinical trials in humans this week using a vaccine produced by China’s Sinovac, Reuters reported. If those are successful, Bio Farma has said would produce the vaccine itself.

In the US, after Donald Trump’s disastrous handling of the coronavirus figures in last night’s Axios TV interview, presidential challenger Joe Biden has been attacking the US president over the deaths of Americans from Covid-19, telling him to “step up and do your job”

You can follow those developments in more detail here on our US live blog.

Germany football league 'ready' for fans to return

Germany’s football league is ready for fans to return to the Bundesliga if authorities give the go-ahead, according to football officials.

The league’s 36 professional clubs have decided on a uniform procedure for the possible return of some fans to the stadiums, Die Zeit reports.

This includes a ban on alcohol, the temporary cancellation of ticket quotas for away fans and standing room, as well as the introduction of personalised tickets as a means of tracking infections.

Christian Seifert, the CEO of the German football league, is taking part in a press conference now following an extraordinary meeting of clubs to discuss the measures.

Updated

Meanwhile in one of the hardest hit countries of the world:

Danish state epidemiologist advises against lockdown easing

Denmark’s state epidemiologist on Tuesday said he could not recommend proceeding to the next phase of reopening society during the coronavirus outbreak, Danish media outlet Ingenioeren has reported.

“It is not something that I can recommend from a healthcare perspective that you go ahead with,” Kare Molbak, director of Statens Serum Institut (the state serum institute) said according to Ingenioeren.

The government and parliament are due to begin discussing the fourth phase of reopening, including nightclubs, this month. The weekly number of people infected with Covid-19 in Denmark has risen in the past couple of weeks.

Updated

Germany is already contending with a second wave of the virus and risks squandering its early success because people have been flouting social-distancing rules, according to Susanne Johna, the president of Marburger Bund, which represents the country’s doctors.

“We are already in a second, shallow upswing,” she told the Augsburger Allgemeine newspaper on Tuesday, urging people to continue to respect distancing and hygiene rules and wear masks despite an understandable desire to return to full normality.

In a wrap of developments in Europe, the Guardian’s Jon Henley reports that the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) recorded on Tuesday that the number of confirmed cases in Germany rose by 879 to 211,281.

The country’s death toll climbed by eight to 9,156. More than half of Germany’s almost 21,000 intensive care beds are currently free and hospitals are well prepared, Johna said.

The French government has published the latest advice from its scientific committee that warns of a second coronavirus wave next month.

The 42-page document - the eighth report by the committee - was sent to the health minister a week ago.

Entitled Prepare now in anticipation of a return of the virus in the Autumn, the document envisages various scenarios, but suggests a return of Covid-19 as after the summer.

To prepare it says the government needs to act to reinforce protections measures, ensure there are sufficient tests, organise how those at risk of a serious infection can be isolated, and organise the protection of nursing and care homes and those in a socially precarious situation.

One chapter deals with large metropolitan areas, another concentrates on preparations in hospitals and a final on the psychological and social risks of a second wave.

The committee has highlighted the need for a public information campaign to “remind people of the importance of wearing a mask and protection measures during the summer period to protect themselves and those around them”.

It adds that the regulation making masks obligatory in outside public spaces, currently in operation in areas where the virus is actively circulating, could be extended across the country.

Highlighting a “significant” rise in cases, the 13-strong committee has stressed the need to reinforce the country’s “test-trace-isolate” system, which it says has “delays that need to be corrected”.

People wearing face masks at the beach in Biarritz, south-western France, in early July
People wearing face masks at the beach in Biarritz, south-western France, in early July. Photograph: Bob Edme/AP

Updated

Poland reports record daily increase for fourth time in a week

Poland has reported record daily increase in coronavirus cases for the fourth time in a week, with more than a third of them found in the southern Silesia region, which has been grappling with another outbreak among coal miners.

The latest tally of 680 new infections and six deaths comes as Poland considers introducing stricter restrictions, including mandatory testing for travellers returning to Poland and quarantine for those coming from certain countries.

More than 220 cases were reported in Silesia, where a rapid spread of infections led to a temporary reduction of coal output and work in 12 mines in June.

Iran confirms highest single-day infections count

Iran confirmed Tuesday over 2,700 new Covid-19 infections, its highest single-day count in more than a month, as the health ministry called for those without masks to be fined.

Deaths and infections from the novel coronavirus have been on a rising trajectory in the Islamic republic since hitting a months-long low in May, reports AFP.

This has prompted Iran to make wearing masks mandatory in enclosed spaces and reimpose restrictions lifted gradually since April to reopen the economy.

Despite the rule, people without masks can still be seen inside the capitals’ shops and banks, and state television often criticises them for doing so.

“In the past 24 hours, new confirmed cases were reported to be 2,751,” health ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari said in televised remarks.

The number is the highest since June 5, when the ministry reported 2,886 infections in one day.

Iranian women shop in the capital Tehran on August 4, 2020.
Iranian women shop in the capital Tehran on August 4, 2020. Photograph: Atta Kenare/AFP/Getty Images

Updated

More than 200 days since coronavirus was first detected, public health authorities say the number of infections is accelerating and the peak still lies ahead, report Michael Safi and Shah Meer Baloch in this overview for the Guardian on the six month point of the pandemic.

The world now finds itself at a nebulous stage, they write, past the shock of the pandemic but without a clear end in sight.

It is a period of grinding negotiation between a virus whose dynamics are still mysterious and the increasingly pressing need to earn incomes, educate children and connect with one another. It will go on until a vaccine can be found and distributed on a mass scale, or lasting immunity is possible and built at great human cost.

“At the beginning of this outbreak we were saying this is a marathon, not a sprint,” says Alexandra Phelan, an associate professor at the Center for Global Health Science and Security in Georgetown University, Washington DC.

“Now it’s becoming evident this is more of an ultramarathon. This is going to be an incredibly long slog.”

Updated

Interpol has warned of an “alarming” rate of cybercrime during the coronavirus pandemic, with criminals taking advantage of people working from home to target major institutions.

An assessment by the French-based global police organisation found a “significant target shift” by criminals from individuals and small businesses to major corporations, governments and critical infrastructure.

“Cybercriminals are developing and boosting their attacks at an alarming pace, exploiting the fear and uncertainty caused by the unstable social and economic situation created by COVID-19,” said Interpol Secretary General Juergen Stock.

“The increased online dependency for people around the world is also creating new opportunities, with many businesses and individuals not ensuring their cyberdefences are up to date,” he added.

The classic 1947 children’s picture book Goodnight Moon has been reimagined for the coronavirus era as Good Morning Zoom, replacing Margaret Wise Brown’s lights and red balloons with “indoor sports” and “couch-pillow forts”.

Lindsay Rechler, a director at a global investment bank and the mother of two young children, originally self-published a version with illustrations by June Park. It has been acquired by Penguin Random House in the US, where it will be published in October.

Where Brown’s version opens, “In the great green room / There was a telephone / And a red balloon”, Rechler starts her parody: “In your own living room / There was a computer and … / News that was gloom.”

This cover image released by Philomel shows “Good Morning Zoom” by Lindsay Rechler, available October 6. (Philomel via AP)
This cover image released by Philomel shows “Good Morning Zoom” by Lindsay Rechler, available October 6. (Philomel via AP) Photograph: AP

The soaring number of coronavirus cases in the United States has far outstripped many local health departments’ ability to trace the contacts of those infected, a step critical in containing the spread of the virus.

With the pandemic claiming about a thousand American lives a day, many city and county departments say they lack the money and staff to expeditiously identify people who have been exposed, according to a Reuters survey of 121 local agencies, as well as interviews with dozens of state and local officials, epidemiologists and tracers.

On Alabama’s hard-hit Gulf Coast, health department staffers are stretched so thin they are directing individuals who test positive to notify any contacts themselves, said Rendi Murphree, director of Mobile County’s Bureau of Disease Surveillance and Environmental Services.

“Everything is overwhelmed,” she said.

Although some local health departments told Reuters their efforts have proved successful * and many said they were worthwhile * several researchers described U.S. contact tracing overall as too little, too late.

“You don’t clean up an oil spill with paper towels,” said Marc Lipsitch, a professor of epidemiology at the Harvard public health school.

People queue in their cars to get to a coronavirus testing service run by the Florida Army National Guard partnered with the City of Miami Beach and the Florida Department of Health on 23 July 2020.
People queue in their cars to get to a coronavirus testing service run by the Florida Army National Guard partnered with the City of Miami Beach and the Florida Department of Health on 23 July 2020. Photograph: Cristobal Herrera-Ulashkevich/EPA

A sizeable majority of Canadians would support, or ‘somewhat support’, returning to lockdown in the event of a resurgence of Covid-19 cases in their country, according to a new poll

The survey, conducted for The Globe and Mail by Nanos Research and published today, recorded that more than seven in 10 respondents indicated some level of support for shutting down most businesses and implementing self-isolation

“Even with the economic uncertainty, Canadians are quite receptive to a shutdown of the economy again if there was a resurgence,” Nik Nanos, who oversaw the polling, told the newspaper.

“It’s pretty clear that Canadians understand that even though we may be doing okay, this is not over.”

One in four Canadians expressed some degree of opposition.

People enjoying drinks and food in Toronto after the provincial phase 2 of reopening from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions began in June.
People enjoying drinks and food in Toronto after the provincial phase 2 of reopening from the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) restrictions began in June. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters

A World Health Organization (WHO) team in China to probe the origins of Covid-19 had “extensive discussions” and exchanges with scientists in Wuhan where the outbreak was first detected, a spokesperson for the global health organisation has said.

The talks included updates on animal health research, he said. China shut down a wildlife market in Wuhan at the start of the outbreak, a day after discovering some patients were vendors or dealers.

The WHO says the virus most likely came from bats and probably had another, intermediary animal “host”. The results of the WHO investigation are keenly awaited by scientists and governments around the world, none more so than Washington, which lobbied hard for the mission.

A worker walks past bed frames as workers demolish installations at Wuhan’s largest makeshift hospital built to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus in China’s central Hubei province on July 29, 2020.
A worker walks past bed frames as workers demolish installations at Wuhan’s largest makeshift hospital built to treat patients infected by the COVID-19 coronavirus in China’s central Hubei province on July 29, 2020. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images

“The team had extensive discussions with Chinese counterparts and received updates on epidemiological studies, biologic and genetic analysis and animal health research,” Christian Lindmeier told reporters, saying these included video discussions with Wuhan virologists and scientists.

The three-week advance mission comprising two specialists in animal health and epidemiology was tasked with laying the groundwork for a broader team of Chinese and international experts that will seek to discover how the virus that causes COVID-19 jumped the species barrier from animals to humans.

The Australian government will reopen the detention facility on the remote territory of Christmas Island to house people currently in immigration detention on the Australian mainland.

The Australian Border Force confirmed on Tuesday evening that people currently in immigration detention will be “temporarily” transferred to the facility at North West Point on Christmas Island, where Australians returning from Wuhan were held in the first weeks of the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the Australian, this will include up to 200 detainees from Western Australia’s Yongah Hill detention centre.The transfer would create space for detainees in eastern states to be transferred to Western Australia to avoid the risks of coronavirus infection in Sydney and Melbourne.

An evacuee is seen walking in the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, where evacuees who arrived from China’s Wuhan city, the epicentre of the coronavirus, are quarantined, on Christmas Island, Australia, February 5, 2020.
An evacuee is seen walking in the Christmas Island Immigration Detention Centre, where evacuees who arrived from China’s Wuhan city, the epicentre of the coronavirus, are quarantined, on Christmas Island, Australia, February 5, 2020. Photograph: STRINGER/Reuters

A resident of a Paris suburb says he was beaten with baseball bats because he asked a fellow laundromat patron to wear a face mask – a requirement in all indoor public places in France to fight resurgent coronavirus infections.

Surveillance video of the attack published on Tuesday by Le Parisien newspaper shows two people with bats and two others attacking a masked man inside the laundry facility then fleeing, leaving him face down on the floor.

The victim, identified only as Augustin, told BFM television that he was beaten because he had asked one of the attackers to don a mask when he entered the laundromat in the town of Soisy-sous-Montmorency north of Paris.

The incident comes as another form of “mask rage” is cropping up as well. My colleague Donna Ferguson wrote recently about a man in the UK who spoke about being on the receiving end of abuse in recent weeks because he couldn’t wear a mask for medical reasons.

This is Ben Quinn picking up the live blog now in London. You can email me or reach me on Twitter at @BenQuinn75 if you’d like to flag up any stories which you think we should be covering.

Updated

And that’s me for the day, folks. I’m handing you over to the inimitable Ben Quinn, who will pick and choose the world’s Covid highlights with his usual suave wit and sagacity.

Questions over Egypt’s falling case numbers remain, reports our own Ruth Michaelson, while a group of celebrity cultural figures have called for the release of a young Egyptian filmmaker and activist incarcerated for “spreading false news,” about Covid-19 in Egyptian prisons.

Over 200 filmmakers, artists and actors including Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, Dave Eggers, Danny Glover, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Thandie Newton and Anish Kapoor signed a letter published today demanding the Egyptian authorities free Sanaa Seif.

Seif, aged 26, was snatched into an unmarked van by Egyptian security forces in late June when she and two family members went to report their assault outside Cairo’s infamous Tora prison complex.

The family had previously staged a sit-in outside Tora to receive a letter from Seif’s incarcerated brother, the prominent activist Alaa Abd El-Fattah.

Egypt’s public prosecution charged Seif with using her Facebook page to “disseminate false news and rumours about the deteriorating health conditions in the country and the spread of coronavirus in prisons,” as well as staging demonstrations to “pit public opinion against state institutions and forcing them to release some prisoners.”

Egypt holds an estimated 60,000 political prisoners, while Human Rights Watch tracked increasing cases of Covid-19 inside overcrowded prison facilities and police stations, including Tora prison.
Egypt has registered almost 95,000 cases of Covid-19, but has recently seen a drop in daily case numbers to rates similar to those witnessed in April.

The government has repeatedly lifted restrictions on social activities to allow life to return to normal, and this week announced the gradual reopening of Coptic churches.

Yet a recent investigation by Egypt’s only independent media outlet MadaMasr detailed how results obtained from a new swath of private drive-through testing centres across the country aren’t included in Egypt’s official case count. The report also detailed how a former executive committee member from President Abdel-Fatah al-Sisi’s 2014 election campaign is a major investor in Prime Speed Medical, the sole private company permitted to carry out testing.

Poland has reported its fourth record daily increase in coronavirus cases in a week, with more than 30% of cases coming from the Silesia region in the south, which has been grappling with another outbreak among coal miners.

The daily record, with 680 new infections and six deaths, comes as Poland considers introducing stricter restrictions, including mandatory testing for travellers returning to Poland and quarantine for those coming from certain countries.

More than 220 cases were reported in Silesia.

Sanitary services said last week that the resurgence of Covid-19 among miners is a result of loosening restrictions and the working conditions in mines, where it is difficult to enforce social distancing.

Poland now has a total of 48,149 recorded coronavirus cases and 1,738 deaths.

Sittings of the upper and lower houses of parliament were pushed back, with the lower house meeting moving a week to August 14th, after one senator tested positive on Saturday.

Members of parliament and senators have since undergone testing.

The government is also considering additional restrictions for weddings, officials have said. Poland currently allows 150 guests at weddings.

Vietnam capital is short of test kits as national coronavirus cases climb, according to Reuters.

Vietnam reported 10 new COVID-19 infections and two deaths on Tuesday, said the news agency, lifting its total cases to 652, with eight dead. The increase comes as the capital, Hanoi, said it was running short of the rapid testing kits being used to keep a new outbreak at bay.

Targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped Vietnam contain earlier outbreaks, but it is battling a new cluster of infections after going more than three months without detecting any domestic transmission.

The new outbreak has infected more than 200 people since July 25, the majority in the central city of Danang, but it has spread to at least eight other cities and provinces, including Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, where entertainment venues are closed and gatherings restricted to prevent infections.
Danang and Buon Ma Thuot in the coffee-growing Central Highlands have been placed on lockdown. A government spokesman on Monday said Vietnam does not plan a nationwide lockdown.
More than 88,000 people have returned to Hanoi from Danang since July 8, but only 70,689 were tested, the health ministry said. Only two of those were positive.
The gap is due to a shortage of rapid testing kits used to screen thousands of residents at a time, according to state media.

The health ministry said it would assign Hanoi medical institutions and hospitals to boost testing capacity.

The rapid test kits, which can diagnose a blood sample in minutes but are prone to inaccuracies, are used to identify potentially positive cases which are then confirmed with the more accurate, swab-based Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test.

Phan Quoc Viet, chairman of test kit manufacturer Viet A Corp, said he was not concerned about stocks.

“Vietnam is not short,” Viet told Reuters. “We have enough for two million PCR tests and are willing to provide enough kits for the country to conduct a widespread testing programme”.

France says its 'situation is precarious' and warns second wave likely in autumn or winter

Reuters is reporting that a second wave of the coronavirus epidemic is “highly likely” to hit France in the autumn or winter, according to the government’s top scientific body.

The warning comes as authorities seek to contain an increase in new cases over the past two weeks.

After strict lockdown measures pushed down infection rates, many European countries are now watching numbers creep back up, a consequence of easing curbs to try to limit economic damage and greater social mixing in the holiday season.

“The situation is precarious and we could at any moment tip into a scenario that is less under control, like in Spain,” the French scientific committee said in a statement published by the health ministry.

“It is highly likely that we will experience a second epidemic wave this autumn or winter,” it said, adding that if people failed to respect social distancing rules, it could not rule out a return of the epidemic as soon as this summer.

The warning comes after the head of the German doctors’ union said the country was already contending with a second wave and risked squandering its early success by flouting social distancing rules.

French authorities have already started to tighten public hygiene rules, with cities such as Lille and Nice ordering people to wear masks in busy pedestrian streets.

France has reported 3,376 new confirmed Covid-19 cases over the last three days and the number of people being treated in ICUs for the disease has started to creep higher.

President Emmanuel Macron, on holiday at in his summer residence of Bregançon on the Mediterranean coast, is expected to travel to the port city of Toulon later in the day to meet social workers looking after older people.

Updated

AP has a diverting and thought-provoking photo article on face masks. From an elderly man playing drums on the street in Tel Aviv, Isreal, to a showgirl wearing a rather dashing mask at the reopening of Bally’s Las Vegas hotel and casino, to a terrifyingly diamanted-up Trump supporter seamlessly incorporating her mask into the rest of her eye-catching look, the photos capture an element of life that has quickly become almost universal amid the pandemic.

As the article says, some of those wearing masks adapted quickly. Others took time to accept them as necessary – and yet more question whether they really are needed, despite medical evidence that they help prevent the coronavirus from spreading. All are wondering how much longer they’ll remain nearly ubiquitous in public life.

Updated

The Yonhap News Agency is reporting that two unlawful defection attempts were reported at a government-designated coronavirus quarantine facility for foreigners in Incheon, west of Seoul, in less than 20 days. The escapes happened despite authorities’ repeated pledges to heighten supervision of arrivals from abroad.

According to police, a Vietnamese national escaped from an Incheon hotel designated by the health ministry as a temporary foreign quarantine accommodation around 4am Monday before being detained in Seoul eight hours later.

The 39-year-old Vietnamese man, who entered the hotel on 23 July to self-quarantine for two weeks under Korean law, was accused of leaving the facility without permission by using a descending life line from his room on the fifth floor. The man was caught using the emergency fire device on a surveillance camera but monitoring staff failed to detect his escape, police said.

On 21 July, an American man in his 20s was detained by police after escaping from the same hotel and is now awaiting deportation. The man was found to have left the facility through an unmonitored emergency exit and bought cigarettes at a convenience store about 100 metres away.

Following the repeated escape attempts, Incheon police have increased the number of patrol officers tasked with monitoring the hotel by six to 33, who are on duty 24 hours a day in three shifts.

Under the quarantine measures that took effect in early April, all entrants from overseas – both Koreans and foreigners – are obliged to self-quarantine at their residences or government-designated facilities for 14 days. Violators of the self-quarantine rules are fined and deported.

In late July, three Vietnamese nationals were arrested after escaping from a Covid-19 quarantine facility in Gimpo, west of Seoul.

Updated

We’re reporting that builders in the Australia could lose $450m daily under Melbourne stage 4 Covid-19 lockdown.

Work levels from big construction sites to trade businesses set to be pummelled amid predictions new curbs will ‘knock wind out of’ state

Victorian builders say they will take a hit to revenue totalling up to $456m a day from sweeping new restrictions on construction in the state, forcing some companies to close their doors entirely.

Under tough restrictions announced on Monday that are designed to slow the spread of the state’s coronavirus outbreak, the number of workers on large building sites such as apartment complexes and office towers is to be reduced to a quarter of the normal number.

Construction employs 300,000 people – about 8.5% of the Victorian workforce – and represents 13% of the state’s economy.

But some builders are concerned that under the new rules they will not be able to safely perform some labour-intensive tasks, such as pouring concrete slabs.

There are also concerns that another rule that restricts people to working on one site for the six-week duration of the clampdown will make it impossible for tradespeople to carry on their businesses.

“Many businesses will have to consider whether it’s feasible to work under the conditions as they are written,” the chief executive of Master Builders Victoria, Rebecca Casson, said.

Reuters is reporting that Taiwan has provisionally approved the use of dexamethasone, a cheap and widely-used steroid, to treat the new coronavirus because the island faces a shortfall of the antiviral drug remdesivir after the United States bought nearly all global supplies.

Taiwan Centres for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang told reporters on Tuesday that medical experts had decided to provisionally allow dexamethasone to be listed as a COVID-19 treatment but that procedures still needed to be completed before it could be given to any patients.

Taiwan has reported 476 cases of the new coronavirus, including seven deaths. Most of the cases are imported and almost all have recovered. It has kept numbers low thanks to early and effective prevention work.

Taiwan’s official Central News Agency said this week that stocks on the island of U.S. drugmaker Gilead’s COVID-19 medicine remdesivir were low.

Taiwan had originally ordered 2,000 doses to arrive by the end of July, but had only 78 in stock, enough to treat 54 seriously-ill patients, the report said.

Remdesivir is the only drug so far authorised in the European Union to treat patients with severe symptoms of Covid-19.
Remdesivir is in high demand after the intravenously-administered medicine helped to shorten hospital recovery times in a clinical trial.

But in results announced in June, a trial by researchers in the United Kingdom showed dexamethasone as the first drug to save lives of Covid-19 patients in what scientists said was a major breakthrough in the coronavirus pandemic.

Japan last month also approved the use of dexamethasone to treat Covid-19.

SCMP is reporting that there is no chance of recovery for Hong Kong’s stricken retail sector this year, according to the operator of Sogo department stores, the city’s biggest Japanese-style department store chain.

  • The ‘deeply pessimistic’ view came as Lifestyle International reported a net loss of HK$227 million for the first half, versus profit of HK$1.29 billion a year ago
  • The pandemic will continue to weigh on consumer sentiment and inbound tourism, says executive director of Lifestyle, which runs the Japanese-style stores in Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui

The Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing economic fallout will continue to weigh heavily on consumer sentiment and inbound tourism in the second half, said Lau Kam-shim, executive director of Lifestyle, which runs the Sogo stores in Causeway Bay and Tsim Sha Tsui.

“We maintain a deeply pessimistic outlook for Hong Kong’s beleaguered retail sector in the second half of the year,” said Lau. “With Hong Kong currently experiencing the third wave of the pandemic, we can see no signs of improvement in the near term.

“The lack of visibility about how the pandemic will play out also makes it impossible for us to see when or what kind of recovery can be expected in the intermediate term,” Lau said in the results announcement on Tuesday.

Reuters is carrying a story that Russia has reported 5,159 new cases of the coronavirus, pushing its national tally to 861,423, the fourth largest in the world.
The country’s coronavirus crisis response centre said 144 people had died in the past 24 hours, bringing the official death toll to 14,351.

Extraordinary trailer of Axios’ Jonathan Swan interviewing Trump on HBO - full report to be broadcast at 11pm tonight.

Here are a few tasters of the wisdom of the 45th President of the United States, rifling through a sheaf of graphs that he seems to be having trouble with in so many way.

Trump: “Right here, US is lowest in numerous categories. We’re lower than the world...”

Trump again, when Swan compares death as a proportion of population in South Korea to the US: “You don’t know that.”

Swan: “You think they’re faking their statistics? South Korea?”

Trump: “Errrr. I won’t get into that because I have a very good relationship with the country. But you don’t know that.“

And again: “Death is way down from where it was...It’s going in Arizona. It’s going down in Florida. It’s going down in Texas.”

Swan. “It’s going down in Florida?”

Trump: “Yeah. It levelled out and now it’s going down. That’s my report as of yesterday.”

(As ever, it’s not clear where Trump is getting his info but the Worldometers.info seems pretty clear that deaths in Florida have been increasing - slowly since March but steeply since June 15th. As of today, there have been 7,157 deaths across Florida.)

Swan’s facial expressions say it all, as does his twitching foot. Well worth a watch.

Updated

We’re reporting that police in Victoria have been given “extraordinary powers” to enforce limitations on people’s movement and to issue individuals on-the-spot fines of up to $5,000, as the state recorded 11 more Covid-19 deaths and 439 additional cases of the virus overnight.

The $4,957 penalty, which can be issued for breaching quarantine and isolation orders, is the largest on-the-spot fine on the statute books in Victoria.

“If there were repeat breaches, if there were particularly selfish behaviour, like for instance, going to work when you had the virus, then there is the alternative pathway and that is, of course, taking you to the magistrates court, where the maximum penalty that can be applied to you is $20,000,” the premier, Daniel Andrews, said on Tuesday.

There are 1,750 police on the streets enforcing restrictions, which include a curfew between 8pm and 5am except for urgent medical care.

Andrews said an additional 500 Australian Defence Force personnel would be sent to Melbourne in the coming days, and more than 300 additional authorised officers from the health department would be deployed to door-knock people with Covid-19 to ensure they were home and isolating.

People with Covid-19 were no longer allowed to exercise outside and would need to accept door-knocks from authorities multiple times a day at random, Andrews said. Until Tuesday exercise was a legitimate reason for those with the virus not to be at home.

Reuters is reporting that Australia has closed its revered indigenous site of Uluru after some in the community blocked an access route for fear that visitors could carry in coronavirus infections.

The country is battling a new wave of the deadly virus, with southeastern Victoria state reeling from hundreds of infections, while Indigenous Australians are seen at greater risk as they suffer a higher incidence of other health woes.

“It’s up to tourists to stay away if they come from hotspots or are sick,” Thalia Bohl-Van Den Boogaard, the representative of a group of Indigenous Australians protesting against the visits, told Reuters by telephone.

A few protesters from the indigenous community stood on the main entrance road to the park on Tuesday, down from the previous day’s numbers of between 30 and 40 that had turned away tourists before the attraction closed, she said.

The group was concerned by the arrival in a nearby town of 39 people from the northeastern city of Brisbane, a declared virus hotspot, said Bohl-Van Den Boogaard, the chief executive of the Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation.

“People here have been locked in their communities for months and months to contain the spread, and now it’s not up to them to do the right thing,” she added, urging visitors to keep away.

About 350 tourists have visited the park following July’s re-opening of the state’s borders since closure in March during the first wave of the pandemic, Bohl-Van Den Boogaard said.

Parks Australia, the state-run manager of heritage estates and nature sites, said it was working as part of a “collective response” to minimise the risk of contagion.

“At the request of the Mutitjulu Community Aboriginal Corporation, Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park will be closed,” a spokesman told the Australian Broadcasting Corp on Monday.

An agency spokeswoman said the park would stay closed during discussions with the group and Northern Territory officials to ramp up health screening and testing at the local airport and Yulara, the town the Brisbane group visited.

And it’s not just Australia. AP is reporting a statement by the United Nations chief that the coronavirus pandemic has led to the largest disruption of education in history, with schools closed in more than 160 countries in mid-July, affecting more than 1 billion students.

In addition, secretary general António Guterres said on Tuesday that at least 40 million children worldwide have missed out on education “in their critical pre-school year”.

As a result, he warned that the world faces “a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities”.

“We are at a defining moment for the world’s children and young people,” Guterres said in a video message and a 26-page policy briefing. “The decisions that governments and partners take now will have lasting impact on hundreds of millions of young people, and on the development prospects of countries for decades to come.”

Guterres called for the reopening of schools once the local transmission of the virus is under control.

Updated

A small group of children play at the Robertson Street Kindy Childcare Centre in Helensburgh south of Sydney
A small group of children play at the Robertson Street Kindy Childcare Centre in Helensburgh south of Sydney. Photograph: Dean Lewins/AAP

We’re running a worrying piece about childcare in Australia reporting providers’ warnings that, with less than 48 hours until childcare attendance rates are set to plummet in Melbourne, urgent clarity and support is needed from the state and federal governments.

From Thursday 6 July, only parents from “defined industries” will be allowed to send their children to childcare, as part of Melbourne’s stage four lockdowns. But, writes Matilda Boseley, there has been no word on which families will qualify, nor what government support will be available to providers.

“We are essentially at this point stumbling around in the semi-darkness,” said Ruth Harper, a coordinator at East-West Childcare in Fitzroy.

“It’s impossible to plan without any real clarity of how many kids we’re likely to have. And, until we get some clarity around the funding, it’s impossible to know how we’re going to pay our staff. We are in a bit of a catch-22.”

The federal education minister, Dan Tehan, fronted media on Tuesday afternoon but said the federal government would need confirmation on which workers would qualify for childcare from Victoria’s government before he could make any announcements on funding.

“All options are on the table. We’re going to continue those discussions this afternoon, and my hope is that we’ll be able to announce something tomorrow, which will provide certainty for the sector for the next six weeks and beyond,” he said.

Here’s a piece Hannah Ryan wrote on Monday, looking at the issue in more depth.

Updated

And a it’s a Good Morning from me, Amelia Hill, in sunny London. I’ll be with you until 11am, keeping you abreast of what’s happening across the world.

Summary

I will be handing over to my colleagues in London shortly, but before then, here’s a summary of the main news so far.

  • The Philippines has begun a lockdown of 27 million people, imposing stricter measures in an attempt to halt the country’s spiralling coronavirus case numbers. The measures were reintroduced on Tuesday after the country’s infection tally topped 100,000 and a coalition of health groups issued a “distress signal” urging President Rodrigo Duterte to act.
  • The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, warned on Tuesday that the world faced a “generational catastrophe” because of school closures amid the coronavirus pandemic and said that getting students safely back to the classroom must be “a top priority” once local transmission drops.
  • The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has warned that there may never be an effective Covid-19 vaccine: “A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help [protect] people from infection,” Tedros said. “However there’s no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be.”
  • President Trump has rejected a national lockdown to bring the coronavirus pandemic in the US under control and insisted the US had done “very well” fighting the virus. The US has recorded 4.7m cases and more than 155,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins university tracker.
  • In Australia, the state of Victoria recorded another 439 cases and 11 deaths, the day after the premier, Daniel Andrews, announced a six-week lockdown with much more significant restrictions including a night-time curfew in the state capital, Melbourne, for the next six weeks, the closure of non-essential businesses, and a ban on weddings. Andrews also introduced significant fines of A$5,000 (US$3,500) for people not following self-isolation directions.
  • China reported 36 new cases of Covid-19 (including 6 imported cases). Of the 30 local cases, 28 were in the western province of Xinjiang, and two in the eastern province of Liaoning. Of the six imported cases four were in Guangdong, one in Shanghai, and one in Sichuan.
  • For the first time in two weeks Hong Kong reported fewer than 100 new cases of Covid-19 in a day. The city is experiencing its third and worst wave of the outbreak since the virus first appeared there in January. Driven largely by community transmission, 2,342 of Hong Kong’s 3,590 total cases have been recorded in the past month.
  • Latin America broke through 5 million confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Monday according to a Reuters tally, underscoring the region’s position as the area of the world hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic. Brazil has the second-worst coronavirus outbreak in the world after the United States, with more than 2.75m and 94,665 deaths, according to health ministry data.
  • Brazilian President Bolsonaro’s chief of staff has tested positive to Covid-19. General Walter Souza Braga Netto is the the seventh Brazilian minister to have contracted the disease. Last week, Bolsonaro’s wife tested positive, following her husband’s infection.
  • One person is dying from Covid-19 every seven minutes in Iran, state television said on Monday, as the country’s health ministry reported 215 new deaths from the disease. The combined death toll in Iran rose to 17,405 on Monday, Sima Sadat Lari, the health ministry spokeswoman, said, while the number of confirmed cases rose by 2,598 to 312,035. Of those, 270,228 have recovered.
  • New Zealand has recorded no new cases of Covid-19. There are 22 cases of the disease in the country, all in managed isolation. The country’s health director general, Ashley Bloomfield, warned that a single case outside of quarantine facilities could turn into a wider outbreak if people were not vigilant. “We have worked too hard to let that happen here,” he said at a news conference.

Updated

A quick look at a few of the UK’s front pages ... The Guardian and the Telegraph both lead on the documents stolen from an ex minister’s personal email.

The Times says poetry is a casualty of the coronavirus pandemic as school exams are pared back.

The Mirror says testing and tracing failures are a “time bomb”.

The i suggests that those who may have already had Covid-19, may be exempt from some quarantine rules.

And the FT’s editorial says Britain must act now to protect the elderly.

In case you missed it, Donald Trump rejected calls for a national lockdown at his coronavirus press briefing and insisted the US “doing very well” in its fight against Covid-19.

As the Guardian’s Ed Pilkington reports ...

On a day that the US had surpassed 4.7m confirmed cases of infection – more than a quarter of the global total – Trump tried to deflect criticism of his administration’s handling of the pandemic on to other countries.

He cited Spain, Germany, France, Australia and Japan as countries experiencing “significant flare ups” as the virus surges again. In fact, while Australia and Japan are experiencing renewed surges, their total incidence of disease remains a fraction of the catastrophe now sweeping across the US.

In Germany, the total number of confirmed cases stands at 212,000, with fewer than 1,000 new cases per day. By comparison, new cases in the US are beginning to plateau but at an extremely high level of about 60,000 a day.

Focus is now switching to states in the heartlands of the country such as Tennessee, Oklahoma and Missouri, where the virus is spreading fast. Trump tried to assuage fears for those areas, saying: “I think you’ll find they are soon going to be very much under control.”

There is concern that the virus is also extending its tentacles out of major urban and suburban population centers into the rural parts of America. On Monday, Trump signed a new executive order aimed at providing a lifeline to struggling hospitals and health centers in rural areas, while also extending telehealth services across the country, after virtual visits soared during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who is counting on votes from backers in rural areas in the 2020 presidential election, said the new order would ensure that telehealth services expanded during the pandemic remained in place even after the public health emergency ended.

Despite these alarming figures, Trump claimed that under his leadership the US was “doing very well”. He dismissed mounting criticism that the federal government has consistently failed to tackle the virus, insisting that lockdowns did not work.

“It’s important for all Americans to recognize that a permanent lockdown is not a viable path forward and would ultimately inflict more harm than it would prevent. Lockdowns do not prevent infection in the future,” he said.

You can read Ed’s full story here.

Philippines lockdown to affect 27 million

More than 27 million people have been put back into lockdown in and around the Philippines’ capital, as stricter measures are imposed in an attempt to halt the country’s spiralling coronavirus case numbers.

The measures were reintroduced on Tuesday after the country’s infection tally topped 100,000 and a coalition of health groups issued a “distress signal” urging President Rodrigo Duterte to act. “Our healthcare workers should not bear the burden of deciding who lives and who dies,” they said in an open letter at the weekend, warning the health system was at risk of being overwhelmed.

Two major government hospitals in Manila city have been forced to close temporarily because infections among health workers have escalated so sharply, while some private hospitals are turning away patients due to bed shortages.

The Philippines has so far recorded 106,330 cases, a number that is rapidly rising. On Monday, the country reported a record number of infections for a fourth successive day. It is likely the Philippines will soon overtake Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, to become the worst-hit nation in south-east Asia. Testing rates in both countries remain low. There have so far been 2,104 deaths in the Philippines.

You can read our full story below:

Updated

UN warns world faces 'generational catastrophe' over school closures

UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, warned on Tuesday that the world faces a “generational catastrophe” because of school closures amid the coronavirus pandemic and said that getting students safely back to the classroom must be “a top priority.”

Guterres said that as of mid-July schools were closed in some 160 countries, affecting more than 1 billion students, while at least 40 million children have missed out on pre-school.

This came on top of more than 250 million children already being out of school before the pandemic and only a quarter of secondary school students in developing countries leaving with basic skills, he said in a video statement.

“Now we face a generational catastrophe that could waste untold human potential, undermine decades of progress, and exacerbate entrenched inequalities,” said Guterres as he launched a UN “Save our Future” campaign.

“Once local transmission of COVID-19 is under control, getting students back into schools and learning institutions as safely as possible must be a top priority,” he said.

“Consultation with parents, carers, teachers and young people is fundamental,” he said.

Updated

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 879 to 211,281, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.

The reported death toll rose by eight to 9,156, the tally showed.

Hong Kong extends social distancing measures

I mentioned a few posts ago that Hong Kong recorded fewer than 100 cases of Covid-19 for 3 August. Here’s some analysis from our correspondent, Helen Davidson:

For the first time in two weeks Hong Kong has reported fewer than 100 new cases of Covid-19 in a day.

On Monday evening health authorities said 80 people had been diagnosed with the virus, with the infection source unknown for 24 of them.

Hong Kong is experiencing its third and worst wave of the outbreak since the virus first appeared there in January. Driven largely by community transmission, 2,342 of Hong Kong’s 3,590 total cases have been recorded in the past month.

The centre for health protection said they would observe the trend over the coming days before making any determination about whether the infection rate was declining.

Strict social distancing measures, which were due to expire on Wednesday, have been extended another week. Pools, beaches, gyms, and various clubs will remain closed, and restaurants will continue to be limited to takeaway services between 6pm and 5am, with a maximum of two people at a table the rest of the time. The government had banned all dine in services last week but quickly reversed the decision after community backlash.

Citing anonymous sources, the South China Morning Post said mainland Chinese experts deployed to Hong Kong last week are assisting the construction of two temporary Covid-19 hospitals, and increased testing. Photos published in Chinese state media, Xinhua, show hundreds of beds separated by temporary dividers in an exhibition hall of the AsiaWorld-Expo centre, which opened Saturday. According to the SCMP, this will be expanded with another 400 beds in a second hall.

The high number of infections has threatened to overwhelm Hong Kong’s public hospital system. Unlike other countries, which allow, encourage, or even require Covid-19 patients to recuperate at home if they have mild systems, Hong Kong sends everyone to a hospital isolation bed.

As of Monday there were 1,243 patients in the 1,256 beds across 19 hospitals and one community isolation facility.

Of those, 43 people are critical, 49 in serious condition, and 1,151 stable.

Data from the hospital authority shows the occupancy rate of the isolation wards rose from about 60% to above 80% during this latest wave. Individual bed occupancy increased by about 50% in the same time. Current rates are around 75%.

New Zealand has recorded no new cases of Covid-19.

There are now just 22 cases of the disease in the country, all in managed isolation.

But the country’s health director general, Ashley Bloomfield said a single case outside of the quarantine facilities could turn into a wider outbreak if people were not vigilant. “We have worked too hard to let that happen here,” he said at a news conference.

South Korea’s Yonhap news agency is reporting that two members of the army have tested positive for coronavirus, citing the defence ministry.

Yonhap says one is a draftee and the other is a military intelligence command officer:

The soldier based in Pocheon, some 45 kilometers north of Seoul, has been in isolation after coming into close contact with an outside counselor who was infected with COVID-19 late last month, according to the ministry.

The soldier tested positive on his second test required to exit mandatory quarantine, it added.

The counsellor was found to have visited several front-line units in the Pocheon areas before he tested positive, and 19 virus patients at the barracks are believed to be linked to the man.

The other fresh case is a warrant officer affiliated with the Defence Security Support Command in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, according to the defence ministry.

He appears to have contracted the virus after visiting a restaurant in Seoul where a COVID-19 patient stayed, command officials said, adding that contact tracing is under way.

The Beijing-baked Global Times has reported that Hong Kong has confirmed 78 new cases of coronavirus, citing to China’s National Health Commission.

Andrews is now announcing new fines for anyone who breaches their isolation orders:

If you are supposed to be at home and you are not, then you face the prospect of a fine of up to $5,000. If there were repeat breaches, if there were particularly selfish behaviour like, for instance, going to work when you had the virus, then there is the alternative pathway and that is, of course, taking you to the magistrates court, where the maximum penalty that can be applied to you is $20,000.

These are substantial new penalty measures. Andrews says the on-the-spot fine is the largest on the statute books in the state of Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state.

Updated

Australian state of Victoria announces 439 new cases, 11 new deaths

We are hearing a news conference form the premier of the Australian state of Victoria, which is battling a major coronavirus outbreak. Daniel Andrews says there are 439 new cases in the state and 11 new deaths. All of the deaths were in aged care settings.

On Monday Andrews announced major new restrictions in the state for another six weeks to try to get control of the virus. You can follow all the live updates on this story on our Australian live blog here.

Andrews says of the 3000 people visited who should have been self-isolating, 800 were not at home. He says the system will change so that anyone who should be self-isolating will not be able to leave their homes for exercise.

“You will need to stay in your home or on your property. Fresh air at the front door. Fresh air in your front yard or backyard or opening a window. That’s what you’re going to have to do,” Andrews says.

Updated

China reports 36 new cases

China has reported 36 new cases of Covid-19 (including 6 imported cases). Of the 30 local cases, 28 are in the western province of Xinjiang, and two in the eastern province of Liaoning.

Of the six imported cases four are in Guangdong, one in Shanghai, and one in Sichuan.

Updated

A 22-year-old female passenger on board the cruise ship Paul Gauguin has tested positive for Covid-19, and has been isolated in French Polynesia.

The woman was tested for Covid-19 before departing the United States for French Polynesia. She initially tested negative, but a subsequent test, on board the ship (following French Polynesia protocols), returned a positive result.

The woman, who was asymptomatic, was isolated and the ship – sailing between Bora Bora and the Rangiroa islands – turned around for its home port, Papeete, in Tahiti, docking early on Sunday morning.

Testing of passengers and crew who were in contact with the woman, as well as her mother, with whom she was travelling, have all returned negative results.

Passengers have been disembarked under a cordon sanitaire: crew members will remain in quarantine on board for seven days.

All passengers and crew will be re-tested within a week.

Vietnam in 'decisive' fight against Covid-19, says premier

Vietnam is in the midst of a “decisive” fight against the novel coronavirus, its premier said on Monday, focusing on the city of Danang where infections have appeared in four factories with a combined workforce of 3,700.

As Reuters reports, Vietnam was widely praised for its mitigation efforts since the coronavirus appeared in late January, but is battling several new clusters of infection linked to Danang after going more than three months without detecting any domestic transmission.

“We have to deploy full force to curb all known epicentres, especially those in Danang,” official broadcaster Vietnam Television quoted Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc telling government officials.

“Early August will be the decisive time within which to stop the virus from spreading on a large scale.”

People observe social distancing while waiting to be tested at a makeshift rapid testing centre in Hanoi on 1 August.
People observe social distancing while waiting to be tested at a makeshift rapid testing centre in Hanoi on 1 August. Photograph: Manan Vatsyayana/AFP/Getty Images

The country of 96 million has confirmed at least 642 infections, with six deaths.

Authorities on Monday reported 22 new cases linked to Danang, in central Vietnam and a tourism hot spot where the country’s first domestically transmitted case in 100 days was detected on July 25.

The source of the new outbreak is unclear but it has spread to at least 10 places, including the capital Hanoi in the north and the business hub of Ho Chi Minh City in the south, infecting almost 200 people and killing six.

New Philippines lockdown hits 27 million people

Authorities in the Philippines have had to reimpose curbs after infections surged past 100,000, forcing more than 27 million people – including in the capital Manila – back into lockdown for two weeks from Tuesday.

President Rodrigo Duterte has approved placing Metro Manila and nearby provinces such as Laguna, Cavite, Rizal and Bulacan under so-called “Modified Enhanced Community Quarantine” until 18 August.

Some businesses and public transport are expected to be closed in the capital, which is currently under the less restrictive General Community Quarantine classification.

A man wears a makeshift mask made out of a styrofoam cup and a face shield made out of a plastic bottle in Manila on Monday.
A man wears a makeshift mask in Manila on Monday. Photograph: Ezra Acayan/Getty Images

Updated

Latin America records 5m cases – report

Latin America broke through 5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Monday according to a Reuters tally, underscoring the region’s position as the area of the world hardest hit by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

Reuters says the more than 10,000 new cases Colombia’s health ministry reported on Monday pushed the region past the 5m mark, a day after the Andean nation reported a record 11,470 cases.

Colombian soldiers wear protective face masks in Bogota.
Colombian soldiers wear protective face masks in Bogota. Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Mexico has also racked up record numbers of new confirmed infections in recent days, registering more than 9,000 daily cases for the first time on Saturday, a day after Mexico overtook Britain as the country with the third-highest number of deaths caused by the coronavirus pandemic. On Monday it reported 4,767 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 266 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 443,813 cases and 48,012 deaths.

In the region’s second hardest-hit country, Peru, daily cases have almost doubled from 3,300 to 6,300 since bus and air travel resumed a month ago, according to official figures.

Across Latin America, which has now topped over 200,000 deaths, countries are struggling to stall the spread of the virus, with infections picking up pace in many countries even as governments look to ease lockdowns and revive economic growth

Updated

Brazil president's chief of staff tests positive

The chief of staff to Jair Bolsonaro, General Walter Souza Braga Netto, has tested positive for Covid-19, his office said on Monday, becoming the seventh Brazilian minister to have contracted the disease. Braga Netto is doing well and has no symptoms, the office said in a statement. He will remain in isolation until a new examination and medical evaluation is carried out, and will continue to work remotely.

Last week, Bolsonaro’s wife tested positive. Bolsonaro also contracted the disease in early July. On Monday he told reporters he was fine and was already cured, after last week saying he was on antibiotics for an infection.

Brazil has the second-worst coronavirus outbreak in the world after the United States, with more than 2.75m and 94,665 deaths, according to health ministry data.

Jair Bolsonaro (C), his Vice-President Hamilton Mourao (L) and Chief of Staff Walter Souza Braga Netto (R) wear face masks as they attend the flag-raising ceremony before a ministerial meeting at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia in May.
Jair Bolsonaro (C), his Vice-President Hamilton Mourao (L) and Chief of Staff Walter Souza Braga Netto (R) wear face masks as they attend the flag-raising ceremony before a ministerial meeting at the Alvorada Palace in Brasilia in May. Photograph: Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images

President Trump has rejected a national lockdown to bring the coronavirus pandemic in the US under control at one of his White House press briefings.

“It’s important for all Americans to understand that a permanent lockdown is not a viable path towards producing the result that you want,” Trump said, arguing that lockdowns cause more harm than good.

The president said the US had done “very well” fighting the virus.

The US has recorded 4.7m cases and more than 155,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins tracker. The rolling seven-day average of new cases is trending slightly down at 60,488 cases per day, according to the US Centers for Disease Control.

Donald Trump holds a coronavirus press briefing at the White House.
Donald Trump holds a coronavirus press briefing at the White House. Photograph: Michael Reynolds/EPA

He also announced he had signed an executive order expanding access to tele-health services for 57 million Americans in under-served rural areas and elsewhere, after virtual visits soared during the coronavirus pandemic.

Trump, who is counting on votes from backers in rural areas in the presidential election, said the new order would ensure that tele-health services expanded during the pandemic remained in place even after the public health emergency ended.

As our Guardian US blog, Lois Becket writes:

“As Trump touts his administration’s efforts to keep rural hospitals functioning during the pandemic, it’s worth noting that the number of rural hospitals that closed permanently this year rose to 13 today, according to the NC Rural Health Research Program. In all, 130 rural hospitals have closed in the past decade.

Updated

WHO warns there may never be a Covid-19 ‘silver bullet’

The World Health Organization chief has said he is pleased about the progress that has been made in in identifying treatments that can help people with the most serious forms of Covid-19 recover. However, he has warned that there may never be an effective vaccine.

“A number of vaccines are now in phase three clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection,” the WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

“However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment and there might never be.”

Speaking in Geneva, he said for now, stopping outbreaks comes down to the basics of public health and disease control.

“Testing, isolating and treating patients, and tracing and quarantining their contacts. Do it all,” he said. “Inform, empower and listen to communities. Do it all.”

Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom speaks during a news conference in Geneva.
Director-General of the WHO Tedros Adhanom speaks during a news conference in Geneva. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters

For individuals, it’s about keeping physical distance, wearing a mask, cleaning hands regularly and coughing safely away from others. Do it all.

The message to people and governments is clear: do it all.

And when it’s under control, keep going! Keep strengthening the health system.Keep improving surveillance, contact tracing and ensure disrupted health services are restarted as quickly as possible.

Keep safeguards and monitoring in place, because lifting restrictions too quickly can lead to a resurgence.

You can read his full remarks here.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Alison Rourke.

There might never be a “silver bullet” for Covid-19 in the form of a perfect vaccine, and the road to normality could be long, the World Health Organization has said.

In a news conference in Geneva, the WHO director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said: “A number of vaccines are now in phase 3 clinical trials and we all hope to have a number of effective vaccines that can help prevent people from infection. However, there’s no silver bullet at the moment – and there might never be.”

Donald Trump meanwhile held another of his coronavirus briefings, in which he said the US is doing “very well” in fighting the virus. “We have done as well as any nation,” he said, pointing to other countries battling second waves. “China’s having a massive flare up right now,” he said.

The president also pushed back against the idea of a national lockdown to stop the spread of the virus: “It’s important for all Americans to understand that a permanent lockdown is not a viable path towards producing the result that you want,” Trump said, arguing that lockdowns cause more harm than good.

In other coronavirus developments:

  • Confirmed cases of coronavirus passed 18 million, according to the tally kept by the US-based Johns Hopkins University. The university’s coronavirus resource centre had counted 18,178,736 cases at the time of writing, with 691,111 deaths. The worst affected countries by caseload were, in order, the US, Brazil, India, Russia and South Africa.
  • The US Treasury Department plans to borrow $947bn to cover coronavirus impact. Congress has already allocated about $3tn for coronavirus-related economic aid so far.
  • Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro’s chief of staff has tested positive for coronavirus, becoming the seventh Brazilian minister to have contracted the disease.
  • Spain on Monday reported 968 new coronavirus infections in the past day, showing a slower pace of contagion than last week when the country reported more than 1,000 new cases for three days in a row.
  • One person is dying from Covid-19 every seven minutes in Iran, state television said on Monday, as the country’s health ministry reported 215 new deaths from the disease. The combined death toll in Iran rose to 17,405 on Monday, Sima Sadat Lari, the health ministry spokeswoman, said, while the number of confirmed cases rose by 2,598 to 312,035. Of those, 270,228 have recovered.
  • The number of coronavirus patients admitted to intensive care units in Belgium has doubled in a month and the epidemic is spreading “intensively”, health officials warned on Monday. On average 2.7 people died of Covid-19 every day in Belgium in the last week of July, up by about a third from two in the previous seven days. At least 9,845 have died since the epidemic arrived.
  • The Russian government said it aims to launch mass production of a coronavirus vaccine next month and turn out “several million” doses per month by next year. “We are very much counting on starting mass production in September,” the industry minister, Denis Manturov, said. Russia is pushing ahead with several vaccine prototypes.
  • Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations are falling in California. Governor Gavin Newsom said the state’s Central Valley agricultural hub was still being hit disproportionately hard by the pandemic and there was not yet enough data to consider lifting pandemic restrictions.

Updated

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