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Summary
As Australia wakes up, here are the key developments from the last few hours;
- Lancashire looks set to be the latest area of England to be placed under tighter local restrictions in a bid to stem the rise in coronavirus infections. Reported by Lancashire Live, the restrictions will ban households from mixing in any setting, whether indoors or outdoors, and people will be advised to only use public transport if essential. The rules will be imposed across the entire boroughs of Preston, Lancaster, Wyre, Fylde, Chorley, South Ribble, West Lancashire, Ribble Valley, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, and Rossendale - and, for reasons that remain unclear, will exclude certain parts of Blackpool. Reports suggest an announcement will take place on Friday morning.
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France saw a new record of more than 10,000 daily cases and identified Lyon and Nice as virus “red zones”. The health ministry registered 10,593 new confirmed coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, setting a new daily record and pushing the cumulative number to 415,481. In Lyon and Nice, it was identified that additional measures would be needed to control the spread of Covid-19. Later Reuters reported the French government would not be joining WHO’s international vaccine programme, a blow to the UN body’s effort to discourage “vaccine nationalism”.
- Canada could lose its ability to manage the coronavirus pandemic owing to a worrying recent surge in Covid-19 cases, the country’s top medical officer has said. The warning from the chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, is the clearest indication yet of how worried authorities in the country are about the potential for the outbreak to spiral out of control.
- Ontario announced new restrictions and steep fines amid a surge of Covid-19 infections that prompted concerns (above) that the country is losing control of the virus. Canada’s most populous province announced plans to limit the size of gatherings, reversing course on previous steps to reopen the province’s economy. The new rules reduce the size of indoor gatherings to 10, down from 50, and outdoor gatherings to 25, down from 100. A C$10,000 fine is also being implemented for organisers of “illegal” gatherings.
- Facebook said it would no longer show health groups in its recommendations to ensure users get health information from authoritative sources. It said the move reflected its view that such sources of information were “crucial”.
- In the US, New York City once again delayed the return of most of the million-plus students in its public schools. The mayor, Bill de Blasio, said most elementary school students would do remote-only learning until 29 September.
- Wuhan, ground zero for the coronavirus outbreak, has reopened for international flights, ending an eight-month moratorium since the disease first emerged. China stopped international flights in March as global alarm increased about the spread of Covid-19, but has now largely brought the disease under control.
- The World Health Organization warned of “alarming rates of transmission” of Covid-19 across Europe and cautioned countries against shortening quarantine periods. The body said the number of coronavirus cases in September “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us”.
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Ireland’s cabinet is to consider a request from the National Public Health Emergency Team to stop indoor dining at pubs and restaurants in Dublin, RTE reports.
Amid rising infection rates over the last week, there is speculation that the government will agree to the proposal when it sits on Friday morning. It would mean that pubs and restaurants could only serve customers if they have outdoor areas or offer a take-away service.
You can read the full RTE story here. (I’m grateful to reader Gary for flagging this).
Updated
Tighter restrictions expected for most of Lancashire from Saturday, reports say
Lancashire appears set to be the latest apart of England to be placed under new local restrictions in a bid to stem the rise in coronavirus infections.
Reported by Lancashire Live, the restrictions will ban households from mixing in any setting, whether indoors or outdoors, and people will be advised to only use public transport if essential.
The rules will be imposed across the entire boroughs of Preston, Lancaster, Wyre, Fylde, Chorley, South Ribble, West Lancashire, Ribble Valley, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, and Rossendale - and, for reasons that remain unclear, will exclude certain parts of Blackpool.
Four of these boroughs - Hyndburn, Preston, Burnley, and Blackburn with Darwen - are among the 10 worst affected areas in the country.
An announcement is due to take place on Friday morning, reports suggest.
Sky News reports that the decision is backed by local leaders in Lancashire and comes after the county recorded its highest daily rise in new Covid-19 cases, as another 250 people tested positive for the virus.
A Lancashire MP told Sky the new rules were welcomed by the majority of MPs in the county, adding:
We want to get this over with as quickly as possible. We want this over by Christmas. We don’t want to lose Christmas.
It comes as the UK government imposed stricter measures on swathes of the north-east of England on Thursday, which included banning the mixing of households and imposing a 10pm curfew on nightlife.
Elsewhere, the Liverpool Echo understands that Merseyside will be placed under measures “in line” with those in the north-east after infections soared in some areas in recent weeks. A government announcement is expected tomorrow, according to the Echo.
There is also speculation of more enhanced restrictions being brought in for the city of Leeds as the infection rate there has risen rapidly.
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Reuters reports that Jordan has announced jail sentences of up to a year for anyone organising weddings, parties, funerals or social gatherings where more than 20 people attend, in the latest measures aimed at heading off a resurgence in coronavirus cases.
Government spokesman Amjad Adailah said the latest orders, which stem from an emergency law enacted by the monarch last April that gives the government sweeping powers to curb civic rights, would be strictly enforced.
“This order is to prevent the violations that have led to the spread of the virus and increase in infections,” Adailah said, adding hefty fines would be imposed on attendees.
The health minister Saad Jaber blamed the surge in cases in the past few weeks on “irresponsible” behaviour at weddings and social gatherings where many mingle without masks and social distancing.
The kingdom reported 279 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, its highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic in March, bringing the country’s total to 4,131 with 26 deaths.
The authorities also suspended schools for two weeks as of Thursday for over 2 million pupils after dozens of cases were discovered among teachers and students since schools reopened at the start of the month after a five-month absence.
The cabinet last Monday also closed restaurants and places of worship from mosques to churches for a similar two-week period as of Thursday. The government also will operate with fewer civil servants.
The government has refrained, however, from a nationwide lockdown that was enforced during the spring for fear of its consequences on an already battered economy.
The transport minister Khaled Seif said on Thursday the authorities waived a two-week quarantine for travellers coming to Jordan as of next Wednesday and replaced it a week-long home quarantine.
The government hopes the latest measures will start to bring back a trickle of visitors to its private medical industry from war-torn spots in the region and help the recovery of its collapsed tourism sector, a main source of foreign currency.
Canada’s most populous province has announced new restrictions and steep fines amid a surge of Covid-19 infections that has prompted concerns the country is losing control of the virus.
Ontario premier Doug Ford on Thursday announced plans to limit the size of gatherings, reversing course on previous steps to reopen the province’s economy. The new rules reduce the size of indoor gatherings to 10, down from 50, and outdoor gatherings to 25, down from 100.
Of the coronavirus flare ups in the cities of Ottawa, Peel and Toronto, Ford said:
This is a serious situation, folks. We will throw the book at you if you break the rules. This crisis is far from over.
The province is implementing a C$10,000 fine for organisers of “illegal” gatherings. The move suggests a second wave of the virus is looming, after the province effectively slowed growth over the summer.
My colleague Leyland Cecco reports:
Gambia’s economic growth rate may fall to 2% in 2020 versus a forecast 6% due to the coronavirus pandemic, the president Adama Barrow said on Thursday, as he relaxed a nighttime curfew but kept other lockdown restrictions in place.
The gross domestic product of mainland Africa’s smallest country grew 6% in 2019 despite a sharp drop in agricultural output and the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook, the travel operator that brought around 40% of annual visitors.
Its economy, however, has not been able to weather the fallout from the global pandemic, which led authorities to ban public gatherings among a string of lockdown measures imposed after they declared a state of emergency in March.
“Based on the current situation, an estimated 20% of expected revenue will be lost,” Barrow said in a speech to the nation.
Gambia’s forecast drop in growth is in line with other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, whose combined gross domestic product was seen shrinking by 1.6% this year - its worst performance on record, according to an April forecast from the International Monetary Fund.
With the state of emergency expiring at midnight on Thursday, Barrow said the dawn-to-dusk curfew would be relaxed and shops, supermarkets and non-essential vendors would be allowed to resume normal business hours. But non-essential public places must remain closed and public gatherings are still banned.
Over 52,000 people, or 2.6%, of Gambia’s 2 million population, have lost their jobs as a result of the lockdown, Barrow said.
Gambia has reported 3,473 cases since the outbreak in March, and 107 deaths. The daily reported cases were relatively low until mid-July.
A Republican senator, Ron Johnson, who was due to join the US president Donald Trump in Wisconsin on Thursday, has instead entered quarantine after being exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said in a statement.
Reuters reports that Johnson, 65, who chairs the Senate homeland security committee, has tested negative for Covid-19 and is experiencing no symptoms but will remain in quarantine until 29 September, the statement said. He was due to travel with Trump and join the president at a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin.
Since coming into contact with the coronavirus on Monday, Johnson has chaired a committee meeting and joined other lawmakers for roll-call votes on the floor of the Senate.
Several Latin American countries have informed the World Health Organization (WHO) they intend to request more time to sign up for its global Covid-19 vaccine allocation plan known as COVAX, an official at the WHO’s regional branch said on Thursday.
Countries have until midnight on Friday to formalise legally binding commitments to COVAX, a mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of eventual vaccines.
A representative for the GAVI Alliance, the COVAX secretariat, said by email that details of which nations have joined COVAX will only be made public after the deadline.
Health officials in Mexico, which has the worst outbreak in Latin America after Brazil, said their country would sign the commitment on time. Brazil, which has the world’s most severe outbreak outside the United States and India, was still studying what to do, a ministry spokesperson said.
More than 170 countries have joined the global vaccine plan to help buy and distribute immunisation shots for Covid-19 fairly around the world, WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.
Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of the Pan-American Health Organization, said in a briefing on Wednesday that Latin American countries were having trouble meeting the deadline and some wanted to push back the date.
Barbosa said all countries in the Americas except the United States had expressed interest in the vaccine facility, even those that have separate agreements with vaccine makers, because it gives them an added guarantee of access to doses.
Ten Latin American countries are among 90 poor nations in the world that will not have to pay for the vaccine, while the others in the region will pay an “accessible” price through COVAX, Barbosa said.
The Colombian president Ivan Duque confirmed on Wednesday that his government was joining COVAX and Paraguay’s health ministry said it has already signed, even as it plans to buy the vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca PLC and Oxford University.
France sees new 24-hour record of more than 10,000 Covid-19 cases
France registered 10,593 new confirmed coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, setting a new daily record and pushing the cumulative number to 415,481, the health ministry reported on Thursday.
The previous high was 10,561 new cases in a day, recorded on 12 September. The sharp increase is a result of a higher infection rate but also of a massive increase in testing, Reuters reports.
The government has made Covid-19 testing free, resulting in long queues at testing centres in cities across France.
The number of people who have died from the virus in France increased by 50 to 31,095, the second-highest tally in two months following the 80 deaths reported on 11 September.
Here is some more detail on the earlier announcement that private indoor gatherings will be limited to 10 people in Austria from Monday as the country tries to contain a rising rate of infection.
AFP reports that the chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, told a press conference the country was going through a second wave of the pandemic:
From midnight on Monday ... all parties, private events and meetings indoors are limited to 10 people. We have an exponential rise in new infections in Austria.
Funerals will be exempt from the new rules and the limit for outdoors will remain at 100, Kurz said, with further exemptions for some cultural events.
He said it would not be legally possible to enforce the new limit in people’s homes but added that he hoped Austrians would follow the rule.
Also from Monday, cafe and restaurant customers will have to wear a mask whenever they’re not at their tables. Previously only waiters and other staff were required to wear a face covering.
Austria is recording several hundred new daily infections, with the one-day total reaching 882 on 11 September, the second-highest of the whole crisis.
Kurz said he was aware the measures “will once again mean sacrifices” from the population but they were necessary “to hopefully prevent a second lockdown” and the “catastrophic consequences” that would entail.
Asked whether Vienna’s famous winter ball season could go ahead, Kurz said it was too early to say but said “autumn and winter will be very hard”, adding:
We expect a clear improvement next year in terms of progress with vaccines and treatments.
Updated
Good evening from London! I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global updates on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. As always, please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share. I can’t always reply to everyone but do read them all – your thoughts are always welcome!
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Updated
Latest coronavirus developments
Here’s a summary of recent events:
•France identified Lyon and Nice as virus “red zones”, where additional measures would be needed to control the spread of Covid-19. Later Reuters reported the French government would not be joining WHO’s international vaccine programme, a blow to the UN body’s effort to discourage “vaccine nationalism”.
•Canada could lose its ability to manage the coronavirus pandemic owing to a worrying recent surge in Covid-19 cases, the country’s top medical officer has said. The warning from the chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, is the clearest indication yet of how worried authorities in the country are about the potential for the outbreak to spiral out of control.
•Facebook said it would no longer show health groups in its recommendations to ensure users get health information from authoritative sources. It said the move reflected its view that such sources of information were “crucial”.
•In the US, New York City once again delayed the return of most of the million-plus students in its public schools. The mayor, Bill de Blasio, said most elementary school students would do remote-only learning until 29 September.
•Wuhan, ground zero for the coronavirus outbreak, has reopened for international flights, ending an eight-month moratorium since the disease first emerged. China stopped international flights in March as global alarm increased about the spread of Covid-19, but has now largely brought the disease under control.
•The World Health Organization warned of “alarming rates of transmission” of Covid-19 across Europe and cautioned countries against shortening quarantine periods. The body said the number of coronavirus cases in September “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us”.
That’s all from me. Lucy Campbell will pick up the baton shortly.
Updated
France will not participate in WHO vaccine scheme
France will provide funding for an initiative led by the World Health Organization to buy potential Covid-19 vaccines, but will not source shots through the programme, Reuters has reported.
The decision, sourced to an official at the French health ministry, is a big blow to the UN agency’s strategy aimed at uniting governments around the world to fight the coronavirus pandemic together.
Instead of tapping the WHO’s global vaccine project, known as Covax, Paris will secure shots through a joint scheme arranged through the European Union, the official told Reuters.
More than 170 countries have joined the project, the WHO chief, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Thursday, a day before a deadline for signing up to the facility.
The agency has been urging governments to join the plan to ensure immunisations are fairly and efficiently distributed, saying “vaccine nationalism” would undermine efforts to quash the pandemic.
The agency has struggled to persuade countries to participate in full, or to go beyond pledges of funding and warm words about donating surplus vaccines for the scheme, which is co-led by the WHO, the Gavi vaccines alliance and the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (Cepi).
“France’s position is quite clear: we do not want to buy doses via Covax,” said the French ministry official who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“Nevertheless, France fully supports the principle of the facility,” the official said, adding that Paris would pledge cash towards it without saying how much it would provide.
Updated
Canada could lose control of virus, medical officer warns
Canada could lose its ability to manage the coronavirus pandemic due to a worrying recent surge in Covid-19 cases, the country’s top medical officer has said.
The warning from the chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, is the clearest indication yet of how worried authorities are about the potential for the outbreak to spiral out of control.
An average of 779 new cases had been reported daily during the most recent week, more than double the level in July, Tam said. Officials in major provinces blame social gatherings for the surge.
“The ongoing increase in new cases being reported daily continues to give cause for concern,” Tam said. “With continued circulation of the virus, the situation could change quickly and we could lose the ability to keep Covid-19 cases at manageable levels.”
Hours earlier, a source in Ontario, the most populous of the 10 provinces, said the government was considering strict new limits on social gatherings in three hot spots.
A draft plan would reduce the size of indoor gatherings to 10 – down from 50 – and outdoor gatherings to 25 from 100, the source said.
The surge in cases, combined with school rules that require tests for most children or parents with mild symptoms, have driven tens of thousands to testing centres, where many have had to wait hours to be seen.
Canada has so far recorded 139,747 cases and 9,193 coronavirus-related deaths.
Updated
The Namibian government said on Thursday it will open up the country for international travel from 18 September, as it ends a six-month-long state of emergency with the average number of daily coronavirus cases trending downwards.
Reuters reported that President Hage Geingob said the government had considered the economic implications of continuing the restrictions and the state of preparedness of its hospitals.
Namibia’s economy which relies heavily on mining – particularly diamond exports – and wildlife tourism, is expected to contract by a record 7.8% in 2020 after being pounded by the emergency restrictions.
“Yes, the virus is deadly, however, we are aware that poverty also kills,” Geingob said, adding that the state of emergency, which is due to lapse at midnight on Thursday, would not be extended.
Travelling in and out of restricted areas – including the capital Windhoek, and the surrounding towns of Okahandja and Rehoboth – will be permitted as a countrywide curfew is lifted, the President said.
Contact sports will be allowed to resume, gambling houses and casinos can reopen and gatherings will be allowed up to either 50% of a venue’s capacity or a maximum of 50 people, according to the country’s attorney general, Festus Mbandeka.
New positive cases have dropped from a peak of 317 at the end of August to a low of 63 cases on Wednesday, according to a Reuters tally.
Updated
Production of The Batman is due to start up again in the UK after a coronavirus hiatus, Warner Bros said on Thursday.
The movie, starring Robert Pattinson, had paused because of quarantine for almost six months. It started up again earlier in September only to be closed down after three days because of a positive Covid-19 test result, reported to be Pattinson’s.
The Batman was originally supposed to come out in June 2021 but was pushed back to October 2021 because of the delays.
Updated
South Africa’s central bank on Thursday forecast the economy will shrink by 8.2% in 2020, but some forecasts foresee a double-digit contraction caused by a fallout from coronavirus pandemic.
AFP reported that the bank revised downwards its outlook as the impact of the lockdown imposed in March becomes clearer.
“The bank now forecasts a GDP contraction of 8.2% in 2020, compared to the 7.3% contraction forecast in July,” the governor, Lesetja Kganyago, said in a televised address.
In a report published on Wednesday, the Paris-based Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) stated that South Africa’s GDP was likely to shrink by 11.5%.
France adds Lyon and Nice to 'red zones'
France is to implement extra measures to curb the Covid-19 epidemic in the cities of Lyon and Nice, the country’s health minister said, adding to the three other regions deemed as virus “red zones” where additional measures are already in place.
The minister, Olivier Veran, did not say what those measures would be, Reuters reported. But he said local officials in Lyon and Nice would have until the weekend to submit their plans for extra measures to the government in Paris.
France has this month seen a resurgence in the number of virus cases, surpassing the daily record reached earlier this year. Numbers in hospital and intensive care with Covid-19 are climbing too, though they are still a long way short of the peak reached in the spring.
Addressing French citizens, Veran said: “We are in a situation, especially in the regions that I have mentioned, where I can only ask you to redouble your efforts, particularly in reducing the number of people you see each day.”
Gatherings of family are a major source of Covid-19 infections, he said.
“If everyone reduced [their] number of social contacts, this would help reduce the spread of the virus”, he said.
The regions with extra anti-Covid measures already in place are Marseille, Bordeaux and Guadeloupe, a French territory in the Caribbean.
Measures that came into force on Monday in Marseille and Bordeaux included stricter rules for beach gatherings, visiting the elderly in care homes and attending outdoor public events.
Updated
The coronavirus is evolving slowly, researchers have confirmed, in a report that is a glimmer of good news for vaccine researchers.
The report, released by the Royal Society’s Science in Emergencies Tasking: Covid-19 group, reveals that while the genome of the virus has shown some mutations, these do not appear to be making the virus more likely to cause disease.
Indeed such changes could actually be useful, with the team noting they can be harnessed to probe the spread of Covid-19 in hospitals, schools and other settings.
While the report notes the evolving genome of the virus should be considered when it comes to testing to make sure cases are not missed, it says the changes seen so far mean the virus is unlikely to outflank vaccines currently under development.
“The genome variation seen hitherto is unlikely to enable virus escape from immune responses induced by vaccination or prior infection,” the team write.
Updated
Facebook has said it will no longer show health groups in its recommendations to ensure that its users get health information from authoritative sources.
The company took down more than 1m groups that violated Facebook’s policies on harmful content and misinformation over the last year. It said in a blog post:
Facebook groups, including health groups, can be a positive space for giving and receiving support during difficult life circumstances. At the same time, it’s crucial that people get their health information from authoritative sources. To prioritize connecting people with accurate health information, we are starting to no longer show health groups in recommendations. People can still invite friends to health groups or search for them.
Updated
Hundreds of workers at Covid-19 laboratories in France went on strike on Thursday, a trade union said, angry over poor working conditions as the coronavirus testing system buckles under huge demand.
Reuters reported that the CGT union said the strike was disrupting testing in some towns and could drag on if laboratory owners failed to deal with staff shortages and increase pay.
The walkout comes as the government demands more and faster testing to fight a surge in coronavirus cases.
“We’re overwhelmed,” the laboratory nurse Aminata Diene, one of about 50 lab workers protesting outside a diagnostics centre on the edge of Paris, said.
The 31-year-old said her Bioclinic laboratory in Bezons, which is staffed by four nurses and would normally handle 40 Covid-19 tests a day, was closed as a result of the strike.
“We can’t be on the phone, physically greeting patients and carrying out tests all at once. We’re exhausted, physically and mentally.”
France has ramped up testing five-fold since the peak of the first wave and now carries out more than 1m tests a week. But at some testing centres, people queue around the block and results can take days because of the bottleneck in laboratories.
Le Figaro reported that in a meeting with senior ministers last week, President Emmanuel Macron said: “One million tests is all well and good, but it’s pointless if the results arrive too late.”
Updated
In the United States, AP reports that New York City has again delayed the planned start of in-person learning for most of the million-plus students in its public school system.
The city’s mayor, Bill de Blasio, announced on Thursday that most elementary school students would do remote-only learning until 29 September. Middle and high schools would stay remote through to 1 October.
Pre-kindergarten students and some other special education students will be the only ones who resume in-person instruction on Monday, as originally planned.
De Blasio and union leaders said the city needed more time to prepare for students to return to school buildings.
Updated
Dido Harding, the interim chair of the UK National Institute for Health Protection, is facing tough questions in front of parliament’s science committee. She has just said aabout four times as many people in the country may want coronavirus tests than can currently get them. You can follow that hearing in detail with Andrew Sparrow on the UK live blog.
Updated
Bahrain’s crown prince has become one of the first global royals to join a vaccine trial for Covid-19. Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa received a jab on Thursday as part of a clinical trial being run in conjunction with Abu Dhabi-based G42 Healthcare.
The vaccine is being produced by the Chinese company Sinopharm, which has started a third phase trials. The trial involves injecting up to 6,000 volunteers to study the effectiveness of antibody production and whether any clinical protection against Covid 19 is produced.
“In Bahrain we are proud to say we have stepped forward and shouldered responsibility, first in sharing in treatment and testing best practice, and now in support of safe vaccine testing and development,” he said.
Bahrain has had 62,500 cases of the virus and 216 deaths. The United Arab Emirates, meanwhile, has had nearly 83,000 cases and 402 deaths.
Infections have been particularly high among the large overseas worker populations in both countries, as is the case in other Gulf states including Saudi Arabia. Infections across much of the Middle East continue to increase, particularly in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, where state capacity to manage a rapid recent rise in cases is limited.
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The United Nations’ secretary-general, António Guterres, has warned that coronavirus stimulus money must be used to forge a new path towards a low-carbon economy around the world.
Speaking at a virtual conference on climate change, AP reported that Guterres said countries had a choice of two paths as they mobilised trillions of dollars of taxpayers’ money for an economic recovery.
He said:
We can either throw away money on the fossil fuels of the past. That is the road to more pollution. Or we can invest in the technologies of the future, renewable energy, nature-based solutions, sustainable transport and green technologies. Only one of these paths is rational.
The UN chief noted that large investors were already pulling their money out of heavily polluting industries, especially coal.
Without taxpayer subsidies they are bankrupt enterprises, he said, claiming that building renewable energy plants was already cheaper than continuing to operate almost two-fifths of the world’s existing coal-fired ones.
Updated
More than 170 countries now part of WHO vaccine distribution plan
The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said there are now more than 170 countries participating in its plan to distribute vaccines fairly around the world.
Ahead of a Friday deadline for entry to its Covax vaccine facility, the WHO director-general said in remarks reported by Reuters that more than 170 countries had joined, “gaining guaranteed access to the world’s largest portfolio of vaccine candidates”.
But Tedros also noted that a perception of a race for a vaccine could lead to safety fears.
“We already face challenges with vaccine acceptance for many proven vaccines,” he said. “We cannot risk having an effective vaccine for Covid-19 that people refuse because of the perception that it is unsafe.”
And he noted: “The first vaccine to be approved may not be the best. The more shots on goal we have, the higher the chances of having a very safe, very efficacious vaccine.”
Updated
In China, Wuhan, ground zero for the coronavirus outbreak, has reopened for international flights, ending an eight-month moratorium since the deadly disease first emerged.
China stopped international flights in March as global alarm increased about the spread of Covid-19, but has now largely brought the disease under control at home through travel restrictions, testing and lockdowns.
A flight operated by the South Korean carrier T’way landed at Wuhan’s Tianhe International airport on Wednesday morning with 60 passengers, the state broadcaster CCTV reported.
AFP reports that officials in white hazmat suits, masks and visors were seen checking the passports of arriving passengers.
All international passengers arriving in Wuhan have to pass a test within 72 hours of departure, Li Yizhuo, the director of Wuhan’s Civil Aviation Office, told CCTV.
China still bans most foreigners from entering and those allowed have to undergo two weeks of quarantine.
T’way will operate one weekly round-trip flight between Wuhan and Incheon International airport, according to the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC).
Other major Chinese cities – including Beijing and Shanghai – already allow direct international flights, but have tightened visa processes and health checks.
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The Netherlands has recorded a new daily high for coronavirus cases, the health authorities there said on Thursday. There have been 1,753 new cases in the past 24 hours. That increased the total number of infections to 88,073. Cases in Netherlands have been rising sharply since the beginning of September.
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In Austria, the chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has said that as of Monday private indoor gatherings will be limited to 10 people because of rising coronavirus infections, Reuters reports.
Kurz set out other measures, including a plan to limit orders at bars and restaurants to those who are seated, with a 10-person limit for tables.
The chancellor also said face masks would be required at markets, in churches and while moving around restaurants.
“These are restrictions that hurt but they are restrictions that are necessary to hopefully prevent a second lockdown,” Kurz said.
After remaining low since April, coronavirus cases in the country have been rising steadily over the past month.
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Key coronavirus developments on Thursday
Here’s a summary of some of the most important stories around the world today:
• The World Health Organization has warned of “alarming rates of transmission” of Covid-19 across Europe and cautioned countries against shortening quarantine periods. WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said the number of coronavirus cases in September “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us”.
• India reported another global record jump in daily coronavirus infections with 97,894 cases in the last 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed on Thursday. The number of coronavirus infections in India surged past 5m on Wednesday, piling pressure on hospitals grappling with unreliable supplies of oxygen that they need to treat tens of thousands of critical patients.
• The global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic may take as much as five years, the World Bank’s chief economist has said. Carmen Reinhart said a quick rebound followed by a slower complete recovery was likely, adding that for the first time in 20 years, global poverty rates will rise following the crisis.
• South Africa will reopen its borders to most countries next month, the country’s president said on Wednesday. The move is part of a wider easing of measures that have been announced as figures continue to improve.
• Australia recorded its lowest one-day rise in Covid cases in nearly three months, prompting hopes that restrictions in some areas will be eased.
• The UK government played down claims of a possible two-week national lockdown as coronavirus cases continue to rise. About 1.5 million people in north-east England will be placed under coronavirus restrictions from midnight for the first time since the UK entered full lockdown in March.
• Spain’s health minister has called on the regional government of Madrid “to do whatever needs to be done to control the situation” amid growing fears the pandemic is once again overwhelming the area in and around the capital. On Wednesday, Spain logged a total of 614,360 Covid cases, up almost 11,200 on the previous day.
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Surge in cases adds to fears of new lockdown in Athens
Fears of a new lockdown are growing in Greece’s capital where a surge in cases in the greater Athens region is causing growing alarm. With the total number of fatalities in the country rising to 322 on Thursday, leading epidemiologists warned this morning that new confinement rules would be inevitable if the triple-digit daily increase in infections rates continued.
Speaking on ANT1 TV’s Good Morning Greece show, the infectious disease expert Nikolaos Sypsas dispelled speculation that a second lockdown “would never happen”
“The answer is, if needed, it will happen. If this situation continues, especially in Attica, we will undoubtedly have a lockdown, there is no doubt about it,” he said of Athens and surrounding area.
A member of the scientific committee advising the government, Sypsas described the next 10 days as decisive. If further measures announced this week to contain the spread of the virus failed to yield results the next step would “be the restriction of citizens’ circulating”.
If enforced the lockdown would likely be for at least a week, he said.
More than half of Greece’s 11-million strong population lives in the greater Athens region.
Greek epidemiologists fear the surge in cases has already begun to place pressure on the health system. On Wednesday, the nation’s public health organisation recorded more than 300 infections for the fourth day running.
Addressing reporters Thursday the government spokesman, Stelios Petsas, said two-thirds of intensive care units were now occupied in Attica. “This puts the health system at great risk,” he said. “We have to all act against this common enemy … if not the economic and social cost will be very heavy.”
With its fragile economy set to contract by as much as 10%, Greece has previously said it would do its utmost to avoid a second lockdown.
Updated
WHO warns against shortening quarantine amid 'alarming' infection rates in Europe
The World Health Organization has warned of “alarming rates of transmission” of Covid-19 across Europe and cautioned countries against shortening quarantine periods.
AFP reports that the WHO’s regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said the number of coronavirus cases in September “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us”.
“Although these numbers reflect more comprehensive testing, it also shows alarming rates of transmission across the region,” he told an online press conference from Copenhagen.
The health body also said it would not change its guidance calling for a 14-day quarantine period for anyone exposed to coronavirus.
“Our quarantine recommendation of 14 days has been based on our understanding of the incubation period and transmission of the disease. We would only revise that on the basis of a change of our understanding of the science,” said Catherine Smallwood, a WHO Europe senior emergency officer.
In France for instance, the recommended length for self-isolation in case of exposure has been reduced to seven days.
It is 10 days in the UK and Ireland, and several more European countries, such as Portugal and Croatia, are currently considering reducing their recommendations.
“Knowing the immense individual and societal impact even a slight reduction in the length of quarantine can have … I encourage countries of the region to make scientific due process with their experts and explore safe reduction options,” Kluge said, adding that the “concept of quarantine must be protected” and “continuously adapted”.
The 53 member states of WHO Europe have recorded nearly 5m cases of Covid-19 and more than 227,000 related deaths, according to the organisation’s figures.
The number of daily cases recorded is between 40,000 and 50,000, comparable to a daily peak of 43,000 on 1 April – although testing in many countries has increased considerably.
A new record was set on 11 September, with about 54,000 cases recorded in 24 hours.
Updated
International passengers arriving at Abu Dhabi airport will now have to wear a tracking device while they complete a mandatory 14-day home quarantine owing to Covid-19, according to state-owned Etihad Airways.
Reuters reports that daily infections in the United Arab Emirates rose this month to their highest since the outbreak started. Officials have largely blamed the rise on people not practicing social distancing.
Those arriving at Abu Dhabi airport would be fitted with a medically approved wristband, which is removed after the 14-days of home quarantine, according to Etihad’s latest travel update.
Those arriving from countries deemed to be a high risk may have to quarantine in a government facility, it said.
A health ministry official on 10 September said 12% of cases in the previous two weeks were from international arrivals, while 88% were linked to people gathering in large groups. The UAE recorded 786 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, down from 1,007 on Saturday, it biggest daily total so far.
The UAE, which has so far recorded 82,568 infections and 402 deaths from Covid-19, does not disclose where in the country the cases occur.
Only UAE citizens and residents can currently enter the country through Abu Dhabi airport, though foreign visitors can enter through Dubai.
Updated
Spanish government tells Madrid 'do whatever needs to be done' as virus spreads again
Spain’s health minister has called on the regional government of Madrid “to do whatever needs to be done to control the situation” amid growing fears that the pandemic is once again overwhelming the area in and around the capital.
On Wednesday, Spain logged a total of 614,360 Covid cases, up almost 11,200 on the previous day. Over the past fortnight, 120,657 new infections have been diagnosed – a third of them in the Madrid region. Three hundred and sixty-six people have died across Spain from Covid in the past seven days, 124 of them in Madrid.
The regional government of the Madrid president, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has been criticised for its slow reaction to the second wave of the virus.
Although it had previously said it was looking at bringing in lockdowns of specific areas and limits on movement this weekend, Ayuso’s administration appeared to perform a u-turn on Thursday morning when the regional justice minister said the word “lockdown” made people nervous.
Enrique López told Onda Cero radio that the plan was to “reduce mobility and contacts” in the most affected areas, but not to lock them down.
“We need to send a message of calm to the population,” he added.
But Spain’s national health minister was far blunter, urging the Madrid authorities to take “effective measures” to arrest the progress of the virus.
“We need to do whatever needs to be done to control the situation in Madrid,” Salvador Illa told Spanish radio on Thursday. “I want to be very clear about this. The necessary measures need to be taken to bring about a controlled situation – that’s the key point.”
There are reports in the Spanish media that the regional government is planning to reopen the enormous field hospital that was set up at the height of the previous peak in Madrid’s main conference centre. It was erected at great speed in the spring in an attempt to relieve pressure on Madrid’s hugely overstretched health system and avoid an all-out collapse.
At the moment, 22% of the region’s hospital beds are occupied by patients with the virus – up from 18% at the end of last week. Medical associations in the regions say that while they have the equipment they need, there is a serious shortage of healthcare staff.
Many of the areas likely to be affected by any measures are working-class Madrid districts, where residents rely on public transport to commute to their jobs in the capital.
Earlier this week Ayuso, a member of the conservative People’s party, was criticised after claiming that the infection rate in the south of the city and the region was due “among other things, to the way of life of immigrants in Madrid and the population density in these districts and municipalities”.
Madrid’s SOS Racism group described Ayuso’s words as “institutional racism”, adding that migrants in the region mainly had precarious jobs, lived in substandard housing and were almost without access to healthcare – “which puts us in a vulnerable situation and leaves us more exposed to the virus”.
Ayuso has previously accused the central government of “cruelly” singling out the situation in Madrid after both the prime minister and Spain’s health emergencies chief expressed concerns over the spread of the virus there.
Updated
In Lebanon, the country’s largest prison is facing more than 200 virus cases, AFP reports.
The head of the country’s doctors union, Sharaf Abu Sharaf, told journalists in Beirut: “There are more than 200 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Roumieh prison.”
Abu Sharaf did not specify whether the new cases were all inmates or if they also included prison guards.
But he blamed prisoners for the spike in infections, saying they were not abiding by health measures.
He also called on authorities to speed up trials to ease overcrowding, in a country where suspects can languish in jail for months without a hearing.
Roumieh prison houses more than 4,000 prisoners, around three times its intended capacity, and has long been infamous for its poor conditions.
A video leaked from the prison and shared widely across social media on Wednesday showed nearly 100 inmates demanding immediate measures to ease overcrowding in light of the virus outbreak.
A prisoner speaking on the group’s behalf threatened a “river of blood” unless steps are taken.
Security authorities had first announced 22 coronavirus cases there on Saturday.
They include nine guards and 13 detainees who had been transferred to an isolation unit inside the jail.
Dozens of families of Roumieh detainees staged a protest in front of a Beirut courthouse Monday, demanding a general amnesty for their relatives over fears the pandemic was spreading in the jail.
Speaking to AFP on Monday, Beirut Bar Association head Melhem Khalaf called the outbreak there a “humanitarian time bomb.”
Caretaker health minister Hamad Hassan has said his ministry was working with the ministries of interior and defence to prepare two hospitals in the eastern Bekaa region and one in the capital to treat detainees.
Covid-19 infections have surged in Lebanon in recent weeks, especially after a massive explosion at Beirut port on August 4 that killed more than 190 people, wounded thousands and ravaged large parts of the capital.
Since February, Lebanon has recorded a total of 26,083 Covid-19 cases, including 259 deaths.
This is Archie Bland, taking over from Josh Halliday.
In Sudan, Zeinab Mohammed Salih is reporting that staple food prices have gone up about 50% with floods, government wage policies and the threat of coronavirus in the background:
Menas Ali, 35, returned to Sudan from Ethiopia in February, tempted back by the promise of a better life in her home country after the ousting of Omar al-Bashir last year. But the Arabic teacher and mother of one is going back to Addis Ababa because of the rising cost of living in Khartoum.
“I just can’t tell you how difficult the situation is in here. It is better for me to leave so that I will lighten the load for my family. When I am there [in Addis] I will be able to help them.”
You can read the story here.
Updated
Madrid U-turn on plans to confine people in hotspots
In Spain, there had been plans to introduce targeted lockdowns in parts of the Madrid region, which accounts for about one-third of the country’s current Covid-19 cases.
Under strict measures announced on Wednesday, the region’s deputy health chief Antonio Zapatero said people in areas with high infection rates would be confined to those areas. The announcement caused concern among residents of densely populated, low-income neighbourhoods in the south of Madrid which have a high rate of infections, AFP reports.
However, 24 hours later, there has been a change of plan. The justice minister in the Madrid regional government, Enrique Lopez, said today the word confinement “generates anxiety” and stressed that the government planned only to “reduce mobility and contacts” in areas with a high rate of infections but would not lock them down.
“We need to send a message of calm to the population,” he added during an interview with radio Onda Cero.
A source at the Madrid health department told AFP that a press conference would likely be held on Friday to outline the new measures, which would take effect on Saturday or Monday, depending on how early they could legally be implemented.
Spain has over 600,000 confirmed cases of the virus and 30,000 deaths from the respiratory disease, one of the world’s highest tolls.
Belarus is considering conducting a 100-person trial of Russia’s Covid-19 vaccine, its health ministry has said.
Large-scale trials of the ‘Sputnik-V’ vaccine, known as Phase III trials, are ongoing in Russia and involve at least 40,000 people. Initial results are expected in October or November, Kirill Dmitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF), has said.
The Belarus trial would be one of several that Russia hopes to carry out abroad. The country’s health ministry said that, while it is still pending regulatory approval, potential participants could apply online at eight specially-selected clinics.
There has been scepticism in scientific circles since Russia became the first country in the world to license a coronavirus vaccine last month.
At the time of the announcement the vaccine had not passed the advanced trials normally required to prove it works before being licensed, a major breach of scientific protocol. Russian officials claimed the vaccine would provide lasting immunity to Covid-19 but offered no proof.
The World Health Organisation’s top emergency expert has stressed the importance of countries having “consistent messaging” when asked about contradictory remarks made by Donald Trump and US health officials.
Trump took exception on Wednesday to comments from the director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Robert Redfield, who said a vaccine for the novel coronavirus could be broadly rolled out in mid-2021 and that masks might be even more effective.
Mike Ryan, of the World Health Organisation, said:
It is important that we have consistent messaging from all levels, and it’s not for one country or one entity; consistent messaging between science and between government.
What is important is that governments, scientific institutions, step back, review the evidence, and give the most comprehensive easy-to-understand-and-digest information so that people can take the appropriate action.
It’s understanding the confusion, it’s understanding their concern, it’s understanding their apprehension. And not laughing at it and not turning that into some kind of political football.
Global economic recovery from Covid may take five years, World Bank warns
The global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic may take as much as five years, the World Bank’s chief economist Carmen Reinhart has said.
“There will probably be a quick rebound as all the restriction measures linked to lockdowns are lifted, but a full recovery will take as much as five years,” Reinhart said in a speech during a conference held in Madrid.
Reuters reports that Reinhart said the recession would last longer in some countries than in others and would exacerbate inequalities as the poorest will be harder hit by the crisis in rich countries and the poorest countries will be harder hit than richer countries.
For the first time in twenty years, global poverty rates will rise following the crisis, she added.
Czech Republic cases surge to record 2,139 a day
The Czech Republic has reported more than 2,000 new Covid cases in a single day for the first time as it battles a surge in infections that is among the fastest in Europe.
The health ministry recorded 2,139 cases of the new coronavirus on Wednesday, up from a previous record of 1,675 reported the previous day, Reuters reports.
The country of 10.7m has seen a spike in cases this month that has easily surpassed peaks seen during the first wave of the outbreak in March.
Due to the rise, the government has tightened mask wearing rules and restricted bars’ opening hours. On Wednesday, the health ministry said it would ban stand-up indoor events from Friday evening, also affecting bars and restaurants where customers cannot exceed seating capacity.
The Solomon Islands is one of the few Covid-free countries in the world. But perhaps not for much longer.
Its prime minister Manasseh Sogavare has said it will repatriate more than 400 students – including 12 who have tested positive for coronavirus – who have been stranded in the Philippines since the island nation closed its borders in March.
Their return has become a headache for officials in one of the few Covid-zero countries in the world, AFP news agency reports, while the Philippines has recorded more than 260,000 cases.
“We look forward to seeing our students home soon, and be assured, the Solomon Islands is still Covid-19 free,” Sogavare said in a televised national address.
Staying on the UK for a moment, the UK’s health minister Edward Argar has said the country is “not in a place” where it needs to consider nationwide restrictions despite a significant rise in cases and concerns over a lack of testing.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that local measures were working for now. Asked how long it would take to sort out the UK’s testing problem, Argar said there was a “clear target” of hitting 500,000 tests a day by the end of October. In the meantime, he said the UK was increasing capacity gradually.
UK minister dismisses talk of two-week national lockdown
The UK health minister Edward Argar has played down reports that the government is considering a two-week national lockdown as coronavirus cases continue to rise.
It came after Anthony Costello, a former director at the World Health Organisation, tweeted on Wednesday that he had heard that Chris Whitty, the UK’s chief medical officer, had advised prime minister Boris Johnson to impose such a measure to try curb the rise in infections.
I’m hearing from a well-connected person that government now thinks, in absence of testing, there are 38,000 infections per day. Chris Whitty is advising PM for a two week national lockdown.
— Anthony Costello (@globalhlthtwit) September 16, 2020
But Argar has just told Sky News:
It is not something I have seen within the department. The Prime Minister has been very clear on this. He doesn’t want to see another national lockdown. He wants to see people abiding by the regulations and making the local lockdowns work.
Ukraine set a daily record with 3,584 new coronavirus infections on Thursday, country’s the national security council said. That’s up from a figure of 3,144 on 11 September.
Ukraine now has a total of 166,244 cases, with 3,400 deaths and 73,913 recoveries, the council added.
Some positive news for our friends down under. Australia has recorded its lowest one-day rise in Covid cases in nearly three months, prompting hopes that restrictions in some areas will be eased.
Australia said 35 coronavirus cases had been detected in the past 24 hours on Thursday, the lowest one-day rise since 24 June.
Victoria state - Australia’s COVID-19 epicentre - accounted for the bulk of the new cases, with 28 people diagnosed with the virus in the past 24 hours.
“It is a fantastic outcome and a tribute to the hard work, sacrifice and contribution every single Victorian is making and I want to say thank you,” Victoria state Premier Daniel Andrews told reporters in Melbourne, according to Reuters.
The result in Victoria will buoy hopes that residents in Melbourne will soon be granted additional freedoms after more than six weeks under a strict lockdown.
Hello all. Josh Halliday here in Manchester, England. Thanks very much for following.
First, some news from slightly closer to home: some 1.5 million people in north-east England are due to be placed under coronavirus restrictions at midnight on Thursday for the first time since the UK entered full lockdown in March.
The new measures will include a strict 10pm curfew on businesses, including bars and pubs, and – more significantly – a total ban on mixing between households inside or outside. Visits to care homes will also be restricted to essential visitors only and use of public transport will be curbed.
It is the first time such a large swath of England has been placed under such strict measures since 31 July, when additional restrictions came into force in parts of north-west England. It reflects growing unease about the sharp rise in coronavirus cases across the country – they have doubled in the past three weeks – and an ever steeper rise in hotspots in the north-east.
As the UK stares at an imminent second wave, this feels like the first significant government intervention ahead of what could be a very long autumn and winter.
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. Thanks for following along.
My colleague Josh Halliday will be taking you through the next few hours of pandemic news. In the meantime, here is our global report:
Summary
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
- India reported another global record jump in daily coronavirus infections with 97,894 cases in the last 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed on Thursday. Coronavirus infections in India surged past 5 million on Wednesday, piling pressure on hospitals grappling with unreliable supplies of oxygen that they need to treat tens of thousands of critical patients.
- China has locked down a city on its border with Myanmar and launched a campaign to test the city’s entire population of more than 200,000 people. Officials in Ruili in Yunnan province said the city had entered a state of “wartime” defences against Covid-19 after two new cases emerged among travellers from Myanmar. Residents have been ordered to stay at home and authorities have set up checkpoints to prevent anyone entering or leaving Ruili and restricting access to border areas nearby. Most businesses have been closed.
- The World Health Organization warned Latin American countries not to reopen too fast. WHO regional director Carissa Etienne said on Wednesday that Latin America had started to resume normal social and public life at a time when the pandemic still required major control interventions.
- New Zealand saw its GDP fall by 12.2% in the June quarter, the largest quarterly fall since such records began in 1987, as Covid restrictions affected economic activity, Stats NZ said today.
- The number of confirmed cases in Germany increased by 2,194 to 265,857 on Thursday, the second-highest daily total since April.
- The director of the US CDC said it will take one year before a coronavirus vaccine will be “generally available to the American public”. That estimation contrasts with recent bullish messaging by Donald Trump, who on Tuesday repeated his assertion that “we’re going to have a vaccine in a matter of weeks” even though a successful vaccine has yet to be unveiled from ongoing US trials, and attacked the CDC director on Wednesday as “confused” about the timeline.
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New York City mayor Bill de Blasio is to furlough himself and his staff for a week in order to close a $7bn budget shortfall created by the pandemic.
- The average age of people infected with Covid-19 is coming down, according to a World Health Organization expert Dr Maria Van Kerkhove. She told a Q&A that incidences of hospitalisation among those aged 15 to 49 years are increasing and said it was possible for the same person to be infected with influenza and Covid-19.
- South Africa will reopen its borders to most countries next month, the president said on Wednesday, part of a wider easing of measures announced as figures continue to improve.
India reports world record one-day case total
India reported another global record jump in daily coronavirus infections with 97,894 cases in the last 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed on Thursday. Deaths are also showing a rise, with the country recording more than 1,000 deaths every day for the last two weeks, Reuters reports.
Coronavirus infections in India surged past 5 million on Wednesday, piling pressure on hospitals grappling with unreliable supplies of oxygen that they need to treat tens of thousands of critical patients.
In the big states of Maharashtra, Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh, some of the areas worst affected by the virus, demand for oxygen has more than tripled, doctors and government officials said, prompting urgent calls for help.
Updated
Paul Karp and Daniel Hurst report:
Australia’s employment rebounded with 111,000 more jobs in August compared with July, but more Victorians are out of work due to the state’s second wave of Covid-19 and Melbourne’s stage-four lockdown.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force data, released on Thursday, confirms Australia’s two-speed economy, with unemployment falling overall by 0.7% to 6.8% but rising in Victoria to 7.1% after the loss of 42,400 jobs.
The treasurer Josh Frydenberg told reporters in Canberra that although the figures show Australia’s economy is “remarkably resilient” and “fighting back”, the road to recovery will still be “long, hard and bumpy”.
The effective unemployment rate – including those who had left the labour market or worked zero hours – fell from 9.8% to 9.3% but “still remains high”, he said:
Covid-19 ethics: should we deliberately infect volunteers in the name of science? Podcast Part 2
Teams around the world are hard at work developing Covid-19 vaccines. While any potential candidate will need to be tested on thousands of volunteers to prove its safety and efficacy, some scientists have argued that the race to the finish line could be sped up by human challenge trials — where participants are infected with a special strain of the virus.
Ian Sample delves into some of the misconceptions and hurdles inherent in this kind of research. In the second of two episodes, Ian explores the importance of rescue treatments, what happens if something goes wrong, and whether it would ever be morally permissible to deliberately infect those most at risk of Covid-19, like volunteer octogenarians:
Southern hemisphere has record low flu cases amid Covid lockdowns
Health systems across the southern hemisphere were bracing a few months ago for their annual surge in influenza cases, which alongside Covid-19 could have overwhelmed hospitals. They never came.
Many countries in the southern half of the globe have instead experienced either record low levels of flu or none at all, public health specialists in Australia, New Zealand and South America have said, sparing potentially tens of thousands of lives and offering a glimmer of hope as winter approaches in the northern hemisphere.
General practitioners in New Zealand have not detected a single influenza case since they started screening patients in June, health data shows; last year about 57% of the samples they collected were positive:
In Ireland, daily infection rates, which dwindled to a handful in June and July have since August climbed back up to several hundred. There have been 2,077 outbreaks in private houses, an increase of 61 in a week, the Health Protection Surveillance Centre said on Wednesday. Since the pandemic began Ireland has recorded 31,799 infections and 1,788 deaths:
Germany's cases second-highest since April
Germany’s cases today are the second highest since mid-April according to Our World in Data.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 2,194 to 265,857 on Thursday. The last time daily cases were over 2,000 was 21 August, and before that, the last time cases were higher than 2,194 was on 24 April.
South Africa to reopen for tourism in October
South Africa will reopen its borders to most countries next month, the president said Wednesday, part of a wider easing of anti-coronavirus measures announced as figures continue to improve, AFP reports.
The continent’s most industrialised economy shuttered its borders at the start of a strict nationwide lockdown on March 27 to limit the spread of the virus.
Restrictions on movement and business have been gradually eased since June, but borders stayed sealed to avoid importing the virus from abroad.
President Cyril Ramaphosa on Wednesday said most remaining rules will be rolled back from September 20, and that international travel would “gradually and cautiously” resume on October 1st.
“We have withstood the coronavirus storm,” Ramaphosa said in an address to the nation.
“It is time to move to what will become our new normal for as long as the coronavirus is with us.”
Under the new measures, most gatherings will be permitted at 50 percent of a venue’s capacity, with a cap of 250 people for indoor events.
A 10:00 pm curfew will be scaled back to midnight and a 50-person limit at recreational facilities will be lifted.
Restrictions on sporting events remain in place, however, and face-masks will still be required in public.
Travel may also be restricted to and from countries with “high infection rates”, Ramaphosa added, explaining that a list would be determined based on “latest scientific data... from those countries”.
The premier of the Australian state of Victoria has issued a stern warning to Melburnians not to travel to regional Victoria, saying the “odds are very poor” for city dwellers thinking of escaping the city’s “ring of steel” .
The state will be effectively divided from Thursday, as regional Victoria gradually reopens from Covid-19 restrictions, while Melbourne remains in a tight lockdown.
“Anyone who thinks they might take a punt on heading to regional Victoria and not get caught, I think your odds are very poor,” the premier said.
The warning comes as Victoria recorded 28 new Covid-19 cases overnight, along with eight deaths, six of those linked to aged care. The last time new case numbers were in the 20s was on 24 June.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 2,194 to 265,857, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Thursday.
The reported death toll rose by three to 9,371, the tally showed.
The full story on New York City mayor Bill de Blasio furloughing everyone in his office – including himself:
Podcast: Brexit, Covid and u-turns – why Tory backbenchers are getting restless
The PM has been attempting to quell disquiet on several fronts, says the Guardian’s Jessica Elgot, with backbench Conservative MPs rebelling over the government’s latest Brexit plans, Covid-19 restrictions and a series of damaging U-turns:
An official said Wednesday that Mexico City suffered 20,535 excess deaths attributable to Covid-19 between April and August, almost double the number reported in the official death toll of 11,318, AP reports.
The head of the city’s Digital Innovation Agency, David Merino, said there were 30,462 excess deaths in the city between 1 April and the end of August, about two-thirds of which were determined to be due to coronavirus. Excess deaths are computed by comparing the number of deaths in previous years and comparing them to 2020.
Merino wrote in his Twitter account that 92% of those deaths were in hospitals and 7% at private residences. The city of almost 9 million inhabitants, like the rest of Mexico, has had an extremely low testing rate and officials have acknowledged that the numbers of test-confirmed cases and deaths probably underestimate the real figures.
These are figures that describe a tragedy, Merino wrote.
Merino did specify how the city had assigned that number of excess deaths to Covid-19, but city officials have been leading an effort to review death certificates to determine how many untested people had probably died of coronavirus.
It was also unclear whether test-confirmed cases were included in the excess-death figures.
Here is the full story on New Zealand:
New Zealand has entered a recession with the economy contracting 12.2% in the June quarter – the largest drop since such records began in 1987.
Paul Pascoe at Stats NZ said the GDP fall was “by far the largest on record in New Zealand” and reflected months spent in lockdown.
Industries such as retail, accommodation, restaurants and transport saw significant declines; as did construction and manufacturing at 25.8% and 13% respectively.
Household domestic spending dropped by 12%.
Annually, GDP fell by 2% – the first annual decline since the March 2010 quarter.
New Zealand’s economic retraction is higher than Australia’s 7% and Canada at 11.5%, but much less than in India, Singapore and the UK:
Hospitalisations of 15-49-year-olds infected with Covid-19 increasing, says WHO
The average age of people infected with Covid-19 is coming down, according to a World Health Organization (WHO) expert, Dr Maria Van Kerkhove.
She has told a Q&A that incidences of hospitalisation among those aged 15 to 49 years are increasing.She also said it was possible for the same person to be infected with influenza and Covid-19, adding that the WHO was looking into the prevalence of that.
Appearing alongside her, Dr Mike Ryan said the flu season in the southern hemisphere had been relatively light, though he stressed it could easily worsen. “It may offer some hope in the north”, but there is no guarantee, he said.Ryan said we were seeing a “stabilisation” in South America, though numbers were still high, and a “stable pattern” in Africa.
The virus is still taking a heavy toll and we do not yet know its full effects, he said.
New York mayor to furlough all staff – including himself – for one week
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to furlough everyone in his office, including himself, for week without pay in order to close a budget shortfall created by the pandemic, Reuters reports.
The coronavirus outbreak had caused the city to lose $9 billion in revenue and forced a $7 billion cut to the city’s annual budget, de Blasio told reporters.
The furloughs will save only about $1 million, the mayor said, but may serve as a useful symbol as he continues to negotiate with labor unions representing municipal employees over broader payroll savings. De Blasio plans to work without pay during his own week-long furlough, the New York Times reported.
“It was not a decision I made lightly,” he told reporters. “To have to do this is painful for them and their families, but it is the right thing to do at this moment in history.”
With the furloughs and other savings, the mayor’s office budget this fiscal year will be 12% smaller than it was last year, de Blasio said, though he did not provide absolute totals.
The policy will affect 495 staff, the Times reported, and the week-long furloughs will be staggered among them between October and March 2021. De Blasio has warned he may have to lay off 22,000 city employees if savings cannot be found in the negotiations with the labor unions.
Josh Halliday and Jessica Elgot report:
New restrictions on social contact between households and a 10pm curfew on pubs are expected to be introduced in parts of north-east England in an attempt to curb rising coronavirus cases.
Nick Forbes, the leader of Newcastle city council, confirmed that “additional, temporary restrictions” were being planned to prevent another full lockdown for the region.
Multiple sources confirmed that the measures, due to be announced on Thursday morning, will include a 10pm curfew on pubs and bars and a ban on mixing between households. They will come into effect from midnight on Thursday night/Friday morning.
The restrictions are expected to apply to Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead, County Durham and Sunderland, but not Teesside. They will cover a population of approximately 1.5 million people.
The new measures are expected to include a ban on care home visits for all but “essential visitors” – the first such measure since the UK-wide lockdown in spring:
Thousands of stroke patients have suffered avoidable disability because NHS care for them was disrupted during the pandemic, a report claims.
Many people who had just had a stroke found it harder to obtain clot-busting drugs or undergo surgery to remove a blood clot from their brain, both of which need to happen quickly.
Rehabilitation services, which are vital to help reduce the impact of a stroke, also stopped working normally as the NHS focused on Covid, the Stroke Association said. It is concerned “many could lose out on the opportunity to make their best possible recovery”:
Dr Robert Redfield, testifying before a Senate subcommittee, suggested face masks may be even more effective than a vaccine in limiting the spread of the coronavirus.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said face masks are ‘the most important, powerful public health tool we have’:
CDC director says coronavirus vaccine won’t be widely available until late 2021
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has told a Senate panel that he thinks it will take one year before a coronavirus vaccine will be “generally available to the American public”.
That estimation contrasts with recent bullish messaging by Donald Trump, who on Tuesday repeated his assertion that “we’re going to have a vaccine in a matter of weeks” even though a successful vaccine has yet to be unveiled from ongoing US trials.
Trump did not specify whether he was talking about a “generally available” vaccine or a limited number of doses, but he has suggested during his re-election campaign that a vaccine solution to the pandemic crisis in the United States was imminent.
Robert Redfield of the CDC testified before the Senate on Wednesday as his agency issued a paper with impressionistic advice for state and local jurisdictions on how to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine – when and if a vaccine is approved:
Trump appointee to take leave after rant likening CDC scientists to 'resistance'
A Trump health appointee is taking a leave of absence after allegations of political interference in the federal coronavirus response, followed by a personal video that warned of election violence and all but equated science with resistance.
Michael Caputo has decided to take 60 days “to focus on his health and the well-being of his family”, the Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement.
Fiercely loyal to Donald Trump, Caputo had been serving as the department’s top spokesman, a post that usually is not overtly political. He was installed by the White House in April during a period of tense relations with the president’s health secretary, Alex Azar:
New Zealand sees record fall in GDP
New Zealand’s Gross domestic product (GDP) fell by 12.2% in the June 2020 quarter, the largest quarterly fall recorded since 1987, as the Covid-19 restrictions impacted economic activity, Stats NZ said today.
National accounts senior manager Paul Pascoe said: “The 12.2% fall in quarterly GDP is by far the largest on record in New Zealand.”
Annually, GDP fell by 2.0%. This is the first annual decline since the March 2010 quarter.
Throughout the quarter New Zealand’s borders remained closed.
“Industries like retail, accommodation and restaurants, and transport saw significant declines in production because they were most directly affected by the international travel ban and strict nationwide lockdown,” Mr Pascoe said.
Household spending also dropped by just over 12%.
WHO warns Latin America opening up too early
Latin America has started to resume normal social and public life at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic still requires major control interventions, World Health Organization regional director Carissa Etienne said on Wednesday.
Coronavirus cases in Colombia’s border area with Venezuela have increased ten-fold in the last two weeks, Etienne said in a virtual briefing from Washington with other Pan American Health Organization directors.
Death rates are climbing in parts of Mexico, and similar trends are seen in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Bolivia, with similar patterns also emerging in areas of Argentina, she warned.
Although the entire world is racing to develop new tools to prevent and cure Covid-19, a safe and effective vaccine that can be manufactured and delivered at scale is not around the corner.
We must be clear that opening up too early gives this virus more room to spread and puts our populations at greater risk. Look no further than Europe.
Etienne said governments must monitor travel very carefully because reopening to tourism can lead to setbacks. That has happened in the Caribbean, where several countries that had virtually no cases have experienced spikes as tourism resumed.
According to a Reuters tally, Latin America has recorded around 8.4 million coronavirus cases, and over 314,000 deaths, both figures being the highest of any region.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coronavirus coverage.
My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours. As always, it would be great to hear from you. Send news from your part of the world and jokes that are universal to me on Twitter @helenrsullivan or email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
Latin America has started to resume normal social and public life at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic still requires major control interventions, World Health Organization regional director Carissa Etienne said on Wednesday.
Coronavirus cases in Colombia’s border area with Venezuela have increased ten-fold in the last two weeks, Etienne said in a virtual briefing from Washington with other Pan American Health Organization directors.
Death rates are climbing in parts of Mexico, and similar trends are seen in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Bolivia, with similar patterns also emerging in areas of Argentina, she warned.
Here are the other key developments from the last few hours:
- Tighter restrictions are set to be imposed on large parts of the north-east of England from Friday as Covid-19 cases continue to rise. The restrictions - which will reportedly apply to Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead, County Durham and Sunderland - are expected to include a 10pm curfew on pubs, restaurants and other licensed premises, and a ban on different households mixing, whether indoors or outdoors. A full announcement is expected on Thursday morning. Our story is here.
- The average age of people infected with Covid-19 is coming down, according to a WHO expert. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove told a Q&A that incidences of hospitalisation among those aged 15 to 49 years are increasing.
- France reported it third-highest number of daily additional infections on record. Health authorities reported new 9,784 confirmed cases and 46 more deaths.
- Hungary expects a second wave of the pandemic to peak in December or January, its prime minister Viktor Orbán said. The country will maintain border closures and make the wearing of face masks mandatory in cinemas, theatres and social institutions.
- For the second successive day, the Netherlands recorded its worst increase in the number of new infections. The country saw 1,542 more on Wednesday after an increase of 1,379 on the previous day.
- The Madrid region is to introduce targeted lockdowns and other restrictions on movement. The measures will come into effect in one of the worst-hit areas of Spain on Friday.
- The US government plans to begin distributing a vaccine within one day of any regulatory authorisation. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will decide how initial, limited vaccine doses will be allocated and distributed.
- India’s coronavirus cases passed 5 million, testing the country’s feeble health care system in tens of thousands of impoverished towns and villages. The health ministry reported 90,123 new cases in the past 24 hours, raising the nation’s confirmed total to 5,020,359, about 0.35% of its nearly 1.4 billion population. It said 1,290 more people died in the past 24 hours, for a total of 82,066. India’s total coronavirus caseload is closing in on the US’s highest tally of more than 6.6 million cases and expected to surpass it within weeks.
- In the US, at least seven people have died in connection to an outbreak in Maine following a wedding reception held over the summer that violated state virus guidelines, public health authorities said.
- US president Donald Trump said Covid-19 would go away without a vaccine. This would happen because of “herd mentality”, he said in an ABC town hall. It is unclear whether he meant herd immunity, as he repeated the phrase several times. “It would go away without the vaccine, George,” he said speaking to ABC journalist George Stephanopoulos. “With time it goes away. And you’ll develop like a herd mentality. It’s going to be herd developed, and that’s going to happen. That will all happen.”
- New Zealand reported a second consecutive day of no new community cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday.
- Half the world’s schoolchildren are still unable to attend classrooms due to the pandemic. Around 872 million – more than half of whom have not been able to study remotely – are not allowed to attend school in person, Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore said.
- Dáil reconvenes after Irish minister tests negative for Covid-19. Ireland’s minister for health, Stephen Donnelly, has told RTE that his Covid-19 test has come back negative.Earlier today, Irish cabinet ministers were told to restrict their movements as a precaution after Donnelly contacted his GP to request a test after feeling unwell.However, ministers no longer need to do this following the negative test result and were back in the chamber by 8pm.
- Nearly a fifth of South Africans may have contracted coronavirus, the country’s health minister has said. South Africa has recorded 650,749 cases, but the actual number of infections could be “about 12 million”, Zweli Mkhize said.
