U.S. president Donald Trump said he would take part in a conference call on Sunday with leaders of Lebanon, France and other countries following the devastating blast in Beirut.
He also said he will be doing a press conference shortly, which would touch on both Beirut and the coronavirus.
I will be doing a news conference on the ChinaVirus, the just announced very good economic numbers, and the improving economy, at 7pm from Bedminster, New Jersey. Also, the subject of the Beirut, Lebanon catastrophe will be discussed.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2020
Australia passed 20,000 coronavirus cases yesterday, with case numbers doubling in less than a month thanks to the outbreak in the Victorian capital of Melbourne.
Melbourne residents are beginning their first full weekend under stage four lockdown conditions, which will remain in place until 13 September.
Changes reducing the output of abattoirs and meat processing plants came into effect at midnight Friday.
Victoria recorded 450 new cases and 11 new deaths on Friday, with most of the deaths linked to aged care. More than 900 healthcare workers have now been diagnosed with the virus, putting pressures on hospital staffing.
Queensland closed its border to residents from New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory overnight, meaning more than half of Australia’s population is now barred from entering the sunshine state.
Meanwhile NSW tightened its border restrictions against Victoria, requiring anyone who travels to NSW from Victoria to undergo 14-days of mandatory supervised quarantine in a hotel – the same conditions imposed on people returning from overseas travel. NSW recorded 11 new coronavirus cases on Friday – the only state other than Victoria to record any increase – and is yet to trace the origin of two of the cases.
The cap on international arrivals to Australia has been extended to 24 October.
The UK government has been criticised by Conservative party members for their “unfair” lack of clarity over the possible implementation of further quarantine restrictions.
Chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench Tory MPs Sir Graham Brady and former Conservative Party leader Sir Iain Duncan Smith have called for a “proper testing regime for air travellers” to be implemented as quickly as possible, and for regional air corridors to be considered.
It comes as Chancellor Rishi Sunak warned holidaymakers of the risk of travelling abroad during the coronavirus crisis amid concerns France may be the next nation to be added to the quarantine list.
He said on Friday that ministers will “not hesitate” in ordering travellers coming back from countries with high Covid-19 rates to isolate for 14 days, as Belgium, Andorra and The Bahamas lose their exempted status.
Travellers returning to the UK from those three nations from Saturday must enter quarantine, and there are fears those coming back from France could be next with cases there increasing.
Sir Graham told The Telegraph leaving the public in the dark on the matter is “grossly unfair”.
“We should move to a proper testing regime for air travellers as quickly as possible, but in the meantime it is essential that the government is as transparent as possible about the criteria which are being used judging which countries require quarantine and which do not.
“Leaving the travelling public in the dark is grossly unfair and is causing further damage to the holiday and leisure sector.”
Brazil's death toll nears 100,000
Brazil’s death toll has reached a total of 99,572 compared to 98,493 yesterday.
The country’s health ministry said it has also recorded a total of 2,962,442 cases, compared with 2,912,212 yesterday.
Updated
Sarthak Anand says his neighbours treated him like a “criminal” when he got coronavirus, a common experience in India’s vast hinterland where the pandemic and stigmatisation are now raging.
“Even though I have recovered fully, no one wants to come near me,” Anand, a government employee, told AFP outside his home in Meerut, a northern Indian city home to 3.4 million people.
On Friday India’s official caseload passed two million, and while previously metropolises like New Delhi and Mumbai were the hotspots, smaller cities and rural areas are now reporting sharp rises.
According to public health expert Preeti Kumar, the probable reason is the return home of millions of migrant workers who were left jobless by India’s sudden lockdown imposed in March.
“We are seeing the numbers rise especially in states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, and with poorer healthcare systems, it is going to be a challenge,” Kumar told AFP.
The poor northern state of Uttar Pradesh, home to roughly as many people as France, Germany and Britain combined, has now seen the pandemic reach almost every district.
The state has recorded 100,000 cases. Its capital Lucknow is reporting more than 600 new infections every day, compared to only 100-150 just a few days ago.
As Covid-19 cases spike and hospital bed space dwindles in Alaska’s largest city, Anchorage officials on Friday won a ruling in favour of a ban on indoor restaurant dining after a standoff over the issue moved to court.
City officials this week sued to halt indoor dining service at one eatery that defied an emergency order issued on July 31 prohibiting the practice after coronavirus infections jumped sharply.
On Friday, following two days of court hearings, state Superior Court Judge Eric Aarseth sided with city officials and issued a temporary restraining order against the restaurant.
“The restrictions on indoor restaurant dining are undeniably difficult for affected businesses, but they are medically necessary for the health of our entire community,” the municipality had said in its motion.
Kriner’s Diner defiance won them hundreds of supporters. Customers packed the restaurant for days, rallied outside the eatery and distributed “We Support Kriner’s Diner” bumper stickers.
A handful of other restaurants followed Kriner’s example, and the city has sued a second diner.
Italy has approved a new stimulus package aimed at helping businesses and families survive the coronavirus crisis, while Rome waits to receive funds from the European Union’s Recovery Fund.
The government would use the extra spending, worth 25 billion euros ($29.5 billion), to soften the blow to an economy ravaged by lockdown measures imposed to stem the Covid-19 pandemic, which has killed almost 35,200 people.
Italy hopes to front-load this year part of 209 billion euros in grants and cheap loans it should receive from the Recovery Fund starting in 2021.
The Italian economy has been among the worst hit by the crisis, facing an 11.2% contraction this year, according to European Union estimates, the sharpest fall in the 27-nation bloc.
“We have set aside 12 billion euros to support employment,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte told reporters after a three-hour Cabinet meeting.
Part of the borrowing will be used to conditionally extend temporary layoff schemes for up to 18 weeks, with firms required not to cut jobs to qualify for state aid.
US health officials reported this week that 15 adults were poisoned in Arizona and New Mexico in May and June after drinking hand sanitiser with four deaths.
Three people had ongoing vision problems, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
All had consumed sanitizers containing methanol, or wood alcohol. The active ingredient that kills germs in legitimate sanitisers is ethyl alcohol, which is consumable.
But some companies have been replacing it with poisonous methanol, which is used in antifreeze.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued a warning in June about Mexican-made hand gel that it said contained large amounts of methanol.
Since then, the FDA has expanded the list and identified dozens of hand sanitisers that contain methanol and have been recalled in the US by manufacturers and distributors.
President Donald Trump has said that after talks with Democratic lawmakers on coronavirus relief broke down, he did not want to provide aid to Democratic-run cities and states and would go “a different way.”
Pelosi and Schumer only interested in Bailout Money for poorly run Democrat cities and states. Nothing to do with China Virus! Want one trillion dollars. No interest. We are going a different way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 7, 2020
My colleague Katharine Murphy on the Australian prime minister’s Scott Morrison’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
The UK’s international trade secretary Liz Truss must confirm if she knew one of her advisers approached the government about a deal for 50 million unusable face masks, a shadow minister said.
Shadow international trade minister Bill Esterson has demanded to know whether trade adviser Andrew Mills discussed a deal regarding the masks, which were supplied to the UK Government in April but cannot be used in the NHS because of safety concerns.
The masks were bought for NHS England from Ayanda Capital as part of a 252 million contract, but the government says because they use ear-loop fastenings rather than head loops, they may not fit tightly enough for clinical use.
The government disclosed in court papers that the original approach for the PPE contract came from a businessman called Andrew Mills who was a director at a company called Prospermill, which said it had secured exclusive rights to the full production capacity of a large factory in China and could offer a large quantity of masks almost immediately.
The legal document revealed Mr Mills requested DHSC’s contractual counterparty should be Ayanda rather than Prospermill, because Ayanda already had an established international banking infrastructure that could be used for the necessary payments overseas, whereas Prospermill’s own bank had indicated it could take some time to set this up on its own account.
The Government also said in court papers that Mr Mills is an adviser to the UK Board of Trade and a senior board adviser at Ayanda.
Mills told the BBC his position with the trade board played no part in the awarding of the contract.
The government has confirmed in court papers that the masks, which are now in the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) logistic chain, will not be used in the NHS.
Tim Horlick, chief executive of Ayanda Capital, insists the masks are not unsafe or unusable, adding that none of his company’s products have ever been rejected by the DHSC for any reason.
“The masks met all Government specifications and standards, the masks are not unusable or unsafe and the Government has not wasted any money in purchasing these masks,” Mr Horlick said.
He said his company had supplied the DHSC with the masks they requested, approved and ordered, adding that it may be that the internal NHS requirements changed because of the fast-moving situation at the time.
The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor, which are suing the Government over its Ayanda contract, estimate the 50 million masks would have cost more than 150 million.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters: “I’m very disappointed that any consignment of PPE should turn out not to be fit for purpose.”
The US will need to have independent experts review Covid-19 vaccine candidates before approval, the country’s top drug regulator said on Friday, offering reassurance his agency would not cut corners in the race to roll out a vaccine.
US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said vaccine candidates will be reviewed according to established legal and regulatory standards for medical products, including by an outside advisory committee.
“Given the widespread potential use of a Covid-19 vaccine, transparent discussion at FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will be needed...”, Hahn and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The US government’s Operation Warp Speed aims to expedite development of a vaccine and therapies to treat the novel coronavirus, and the emphasis on speed has provoked public anxiety about the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines, Hahn and the other officials wrote.
“There is a line separating the government’s efforts to focus resources and funding to scale vaccine development from FDA’s review processes, which are rooted in federal statute and established FDA regulations,” they added.
Earlier this week, the country’s infectious diseases chief, Anthony Fauci, told Reuters political pressure will not determine when a coronavirus vaccine is approved.
President Donald Trump has said it was possible for the country to have a coronavirus vaccine before the November 3 election.
A summary of today's developments
- India’s official coronavirus case tally hit two million on Friday, doubling in three weeks as the pandemic sweeps into smaller cities and rural areas. A record daily jump of more than 60,000 fresh infections was recorded, according to health ministry data, making India only the third country to surpass the two million milestone after the US and Brazil.
- The number of daily coronavirus infections in Italy jumped 38% higher on Friday, with 552 confirmed cases registered compared to the previous day. Italy has not seen a such a high daily new caseload since late May.
- The Democrats and Republicans remain in a stalemate over the next US coronavirus relief package. House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said they offered to compromise on a topline of roughly $2 trillion for the package, but treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows rejected that offer.
- New York schools can bring children back to classrooms for the start of the school year, governor Andrew Cuomo has announced. The Democratic governor’s decision clears the way for schools to offer at least some days of classes alongside remote learning.
- More than 5,400 people died in Russia from coronavirus in June, the state statistics service said on Friday, one thousand more people than previously announced by the authorities. The official death toll rose on Friday by 119 to 14,725.
- The number of cases recorded in France was 2,288 on Friday compared with 1,604 on Thursday. The country has around 235,000 cases in total, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.
- The European Union has removed Morocco from its safe list of countries from which the bloc allows non-essential travel after a review by EU ambassadors. The move leaves 10 countries on the new list, which takes effect August 8, after the EU also excluded Algeria last week.
- Hong Kong has announced free mass testing for all residents, amid a third wave of Covid-19 infections. More than half the city’s total number of infections were detected in July, with 12 days in a row with cases above 100. The death toll reached 46.
- Norway has advised its citizens to avoid all travel abroad, even to countries with few Covid-19 cases, amid a series of measures aimed at preventing a resurgence of the epidemic.
- Thousands of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) and 500 hospital beds have been destroyed in the Beirut explosion. UN agencies are scrambling to support victims, while the its high commissioner has described the ongoing situation as “really dire” according to Reuters.
The St Louis Cardinals’ baseball game against the Chicago Cubs has been postponed after another St Louis player tested positive for Covid-19.
The Cardinals have been off since last Friday, when two players returned positive coronavirus tests. Eight players in total have tested positive, including star catcher Yadier Molina.
The Democrats and Republicans remain in a stalemate over the next US coronavirus relief package.
House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said they offered to compromise on a topline of roughly $2 trillion for the package, but treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows rejected that offer.
Walking into his next meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, Mnuchin was asked about whether he was open to a $2 trillion topline, which would be about $1 trillion more than originally proposed in the Republican bill.
Mnuchin told reporters, “That’s a non-starter.”
Pelosi said the big difference with the White House is over food aid.
A tweet from the World Health Organization’s director-general.
Always nice to talk to my friend, @Haavisto, Foreign Minister of #Finland 🇫🇮. Thank you for your strong support of @WHO & leadership in the fight against #COVID19. We discussed the ACT Accelerator, #Ebola in #DRC and the recent blast in #Beirut. Solidarity! https://t.co/wZhOF8Rhv7
— Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus (@DrTedros) August 7, 2020
Racial disparities in the US coronavirus epidemic extend to children, according to two government reports released on Friday.
One of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies looked children with Covid-19 who needed hospitalisation.
Hispanic children were hospitalized at a rate eight times higher than white kids, and Black children were hospitalized at a rate five times higher, it found.
“A number of possible factors could explain the disparities”, said Dr Cyrus Shahpar, from advocacy group Resolve to Save Lives.
The second study examined cases of a rare virus-associated syndrome in kids. It found that nearly three-quarters of the children with the syndrome were either Hispanic or Black, well above their representation in the general population.
The second CDC report focused on 570 kids diagnosed with a rare coronavirus-linked inflammatory condition. Eight of them died.
Security forces are punishing some people in Venezuela who violate anti-coronavirus measures with physical exercise, sitting under the sun and beating, witnesses and human rights groups say.
Roberto Vargas was heading to buy flour with his children in Caracas on Thursday when he lowered his face mask to wipe sweat from his face, he said.
A National Guard officer noticed and ordered him to spend 50 minutes sat on the roadside with several dozen others, the builder recounted.
“This is madness,” he told Reuters in the Caracas slum of Petare, just after completing his penalty.
Local rights groups say authorities are handing out such punishments around the country for infractions ranging from not queuing correctly for groceries to disobeying curfews.
One group, Provea, on July 31 posted a video on Twitter apparently showing a soldier in western Tachira state ordering three young men to do pushups while saying
“I should not be in the street.”
In some cases, security forces have used violence as a form of discipline, Provea says. On July 22, it posted another video on Twitter, which had been circulating on social media, saying it showed three men being hit on their legs with a baseball bat for breaking coronavirus measures.
Venezuela’s Information Ministry did not respond to a request to comment about the videos, which Reuters was unable to independently verify.
But chief prosecutor Tarek Saab reacted to the baseball bat video by saying authorities would investigate the “cruel and inhuman treatment” and a week later said the person responsible had been identified and charged with assault.
Mexico’s energy secretary, Rocio Nahle, said she was quarantining for two weeks because she had been in contact with a person who tested positive for Covid-19.
Nahle wrote on Twitter that she tested negative for the illness caused by coronavirus but she was abiding by the medical recommendations.
On Thursday, Mexico reported 6,590 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 819 fatalities, bringing the country’s totals to 462,690 cases and 50,517 deaths.
New York given green light for schools to reopen
New York schools can bring children back to classrooms for the start of the school year, governor Andrew Cuomo has announced.
The Democratic governor’s decision clears the way for schools to offer at least some days of in-person classes, alongside remote learning.
Students will be required to wear masks throughout school day, and schools will urge parents to check children for symptoms.
“Everywhere in the state, every region is below the threshold that we established”, Cuomo said during a conference call with reporters.
He said New York can revisit if the infection rate spikes.
Many school districts in the city have planned to start the year with students in school buildings only a few days a week, while learning at home the rest of the time.
The state has left tough decisions on everything from handling sick students, to boosting internet access, to delaying the first day, to addressing poor ventilation, to preventing spread by asymptomatic individuals up to individual districts, which are demanding increased funding.
“If any state can do this, we can do this,” Cuomo said.
Every region is well below our COVID infection limit, therefore all school districts are authorized to open.
— Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 7, 2020
If the infection rate spikes, the guidance will change accordingly.
School districts are required to submit plans to NYS for review.
More than 5,400 people died in Russia from coronavirus in June, the state statistics service said on Friday, one thousand more people than previously announced by the authorities.
The country’s reported mortality rate is much lower than in other countries with similar rates of infection, leading critics to accuse officials of under-reporting deaths to minimise the scale of the crisis.
According to daily figures released by health authorities, 4,499 people died from Covid-19 between June 2 and July 1.
The official death toll rose on Friday by 119 to 14,725.
Russia currently has the fourth largest caseload of the virus in the world, and the 11th highest number of related deaths.
The death toll in France has risen by 12 to bring the total to 30,324 on Friday, the country’s health ministry said.
The number of cases recorded was 2,288 on Friday compared with 1,604 on Thursday.
The country has around 235,000 cases in total, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.
EU removes Morocco from safe list of countries
The European Union has removed Morocco from its safe list of countries from which the bloc allows non-essential travel after a review by EU ambassadors.
The move leaves 10 countries on the new list, which takes effect August 8, after the EU also excluded Algeria last week.
The safe countries deemed to have the coronavirus pandemic largely under control are Australia, Canada, Georgia, Japan, New Zealand, Rwanda, South Korea, Thailand, Tunisia, and Uruguay.
China has also been approved, although travel would only open up if Chinese authorities also allowed in EU visitors.
Morocco recorded a record high of 6,385 new cases of the virus in the past week, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University. The country has reported a total of 29,644 cases and 449 deaths.
The list serves as a guideline rather than a rule for the EU’s 27 members, with the aim that no EU country would open its borders to countries not on the list.
Updated
That’s all from me, Caroline Davies. Thank you for your time.
India’s official coronavirus case tally hit two million on Friday, doubling in three weeks as the pandemic sweeps into smaller cities and rural areas, with experts warning the real toll could be much higher.
A record daily jump of more than 60,000 fresh infections was recorded, according to health ministry data, making the South Asian giant only the third country to surpass the two million milestone after the United States and Brazil, AFP reports.
The rate of spread in the world’s second-most populous country also appears to be increasing. India logged its first one million infections by July 17 and crossed the 1.5 million mark just 12 days after that.
Official figures show the country has now recorded 2.03 million infections and 41,585 deaths.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March.
Ireland’s premier Micheál Martin has announced a regional lockdown in counties Kildare, Laois and Offaly following a surge in coronavirus cases.
Addressing the country, the Taoiseach said the virus was still a “deep and urgent threat”.
He said a number of limited restrictions will apply to the three counties for two weeks from midnight.
These include restricting movement within the counties, with the exception of work purposes and other essential journeys; restaurants and pubs serving food to close, apart from takeaway services, deliveries and limited outdoor dining; and the closure of indoor entertainment and sport venues such as cinemas, theatres, museums, galleries and bingo halls.
Visits to prisons, acute hospitals and nursing homes will be suspended except on compassionate grounds, PA Media reports.
People have been asked not to travel to those counties unless for work.
A ban on households mixing in homes or gardens in large parts of the north of England is to stay in place for at least another week, and has been extended into Preston, the health department has announced.
After a review by ministers and councils on Thursday, the decision was reached that with no sign yet of worrying levels of coronavirus infections falling, the restrictions would stay in place across parts of the north-west of England, West Yorkshire and Leicester, writes Peter Walker.
The meeting also, as widely predicted, added Preston to the list of restricted areas. The rules in the Lancashire city come into force at midnight tonight.
Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian
The rules will stay in place at least until they are reviewed on 14 August and mean that aside from official support bubbles, people from different households will be unable to meet in homes or gardens, although they can still do this in public places like pubs, in line with rules across the rest of England.
Adrian Phillips, chief executive at Preston council, said case numbers had increased rapidly in recent days, adding: “It is also alarming to see that the under 30s are contracting it at a significant rate.”
Read the full report
Italy: new infections jump by 38% in a day
The number of daily new coronavirus infections in Italy jumped 38% higher on Friday, with 552 confirmed cases registered compared to the previous day.
Italy has not seen a such a high daily new caseload since late May. Barely two weeks ago, Italy had been registering roughly 200 new cases a day, the Associated Press reports.
The northeastern region of Veneto, which performed nearly 16,500 swab tests in a day, registered roughly a third of those new cases 183.
Veneto governor Luca Zaia said the new infections were found in residents who recently returned home from Spain, Peru, Malta, Croatia and Greece.
Vacations are a risk,” he said in his daily briefing. Everyone must decide where they want to go on vacation, but it’s also true, that by us, for a couple of weeks now, we’re seeing a concentration of patients who were infected on vacation.’’
Updated
Disturbing news today from Greece where the country’s public health organisation, EODY, has announced that once again this week it took stock of more than 150 cases of additional coronavirus cases overnight.
By 3pm the organisation registered 151 new infections bringing the total number of confirmed coronavirus cases to 5,270.
Urban centres including Attica surrounding Athens and Thessaloniki in the north have both experienced a rise in numbers with 46 and 38 new cases respectively.
Authorities on the Argo Saronic isle of Poros say at least 30 people have diagnosed positive for the virus with the outbreak enforcing a partial lockdown on the island.
As the tourist-dependent nation gears up for the height of the summer season - and one of the biggest Orthodox Christian festivals - health officials have begun sounding the alarm.
Islands that were once Covid-free, including Mykonos and Corfu have reported cases in recent weeks. Both are among the most popular islands in Greece.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a list of the key global coronavirus developments over the last few hours:
- Hong Kong has announced free mass testing for all residents, amid a third wave of Covid-19 infections. More than half the city’s total number of infections were detected in July, with 12 days in a row with cases above 100. The death toll reached 46.
- Norway has advised its citizens to avoid all travel abroad, even to countries with few Covid-19 cases, amid a series of measures aimed at preventing a resurgence of the epidemic.
-
Thousands of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) and 500 hospital beds have been destroyed in the Beirut explosion.
UN agencies are scrambling to support victims, while the its high commissioner has described the ongoing situation as “really dire” according to Reuters. - The UK chancellor Rishi Sunak has issued a warning that the government will “not hesitate” to impose quarantine restrictions on arrivals from other countries amid concerns that France may be the next destination to be removed from the UK’s travel corridor list.
- Japan confirmed a record 1,580 new coronavirus infections on Friday, as cases continue to mount throughout the country, particularly in urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka.
- More than 3.5 million health workers in India have embarked on a two-day strike over wages and PPE. It comes as the country recorded a record daily jump in coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the total to over two million. Many of those on strike have been conducting door-to-door checks to trace Covid-19 patients.
-
Emmanuel Macron has called a meeting of France’s defence council over the country’s continued rise in Covid-19 cases.
The president said he was calling for “the greatest vigilance” among citizens after the number of infections grew by 33% in a week between 27 July and 2 August. - Greek public health officials are becoming increasingly concerned at the number of young people testing positive for the novel virus. An abrupt increase in cases nationwide is being attributed increasingly to younger Greeks flouting mask-wearing and social distancing rules.
Spain’s health ministry announced 4,507 new Covid cases on Friday afternoon, 1,895 of them diagnosed over the past 24 hours. The country’s total cases now stand at 314,362, and the death toll at 28,503.
However the number of new cases could be higher because Aragón, one of the regions most affected by new outbreaks, failed to provide the ministry with a daily update on Friday because of “technical problems”.
Spain has logged 37,537 new cases in the past two weeks, suggesting the country is already experiencing a second wave of the virus.
In the US, at least 100,000 people are expected to attend the 10-day annual Sturgis motorcycle rally in South Dakota’s Black Hills from today, as opportunities for the local economy have overridden concerns it could become a coronavirus superspreading event.
This year is the 80th anniversary of the event that in normal years sees upward of 500,000 motorcycle enthusiasts descend on the small town of Sturgis and the surrounding area. The rally injects $800m (£614m) into South Dakota’s economy, Reuters reports.
Local authorities expect to take an economic hit with fewer in attendance this year and have halved the number of vendors allowed to participate.
But they are still counting on a massive crowd – one of the biggest in the world since the coronavirus pandemic began – to pack concerts with at least 34 acts playing. Most rallies bring a sea of black leather, boots and bandannas into Sturgis, population 6,900 in normal times.
Full report here
Coronavirus has now infected more than 1 million people in Africa, according to a tally by the French news agency AFP.
Countries across the continent have recorded 1,011,495 infections and at least 22,115 deaths, accounting for about 5% of global cases, it reports. Five countries account for 75% of all cases, says the continent’s health watchdog, the Africa Centres for Diseases Control.
Some countries have recently seen declines of about 20% in daily cases but it is too early to confirm this as a trend, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
“African countries are doing their best, despite … limitations,” such as weak health systems, Mary Stephen of the WHO Africa office, said on Friday.
However, she warned against the public complacency that can develop in prolonged outbreaks.
“Because we don’t see many people like we used to see in Italy, like 1,000 people dying (a day), people tend to relax, they think the risk is not so much in Africa. We need to avoid complacency,” she said in a phone interview from Brazzaville.
Countries with high infections relative to the size of their populations include South Africa, Djibouti, Gabon, Cape Verde and Sao Tome and Principe. East African nations Rwanda and Uganda have managed to significantly slow down transmission, while Mauritius has flattened the curve.
Updated
One of two 90-minute rapid coronavirus tests bought by the UK government and announced on Monday has yet to be approved by regulators, while no data on the accuracy of either has been published, the Guardian has learned.
Sarah Boseley reports that the test, from Oxford Nanopore, a young biotech company spun off from Oxford University, has not yet been approved by the regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Authority (MHRA). Before Covid-19, Oxford Nanopore had been involved only in research – not tests for patients.
About 80 other molecular tests had a CE-mark from the MHRA as early as April. DnaNudge was granted an emergency exemption by MHRA and can be used without the CE mark.
Oxford Nanopore and DnaNudge were first name-checked by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, in a Downing Street press conference on 1 May, the day he announced his target for reaching 100,000 tests per day in England had been met.
You can read Sarah’s full report here:
Updated
The death toll from coronavirus in the US passed 160,000 earlier in the day. For all the latest on US developments, you can read our US coronavirus live blog here:
Japan confirms record number of new infections
Japan confirmed a record 1,580 new coronavirus infections on Friday, as cases continue to mount throughout the country, particularly in urban areas like Tokyo and Osaka, Japan’s national daily, The Mainichi, reports.
With Japan’s Bon holiday season beginning next week, there is concern that the movement of people will further spread the virus.
The Tokyo metropolitan government on Friday reported 462 new cases of coronavirus infection, just short of the daily record of 472 cases confirmed in the capital late last week.
To mitigate the risk of the virus spreading, Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike has requested residents to refrain from travelling during the holiday.
Updated
Norway advises citizens to avoid all travel abroad
Norway has advised its citizens to avoid all travel abroad, even to countries with few Covid-19 cases, amid a series of measures aimed at preventing a resurgence of the epidemic.
“I think most of us have now understood the holiday is over,” health minister Bent Høie told a press conference. “We have to roll up our sleeves, because we have a job to do – preventing the virus from forcing us to close the country again.”
Saying sacrifices would be needed in order to keep schools open, Høie said that from Saturday, bars across Norway would no longer be allowed to serve past midnight. Gatherings would remain restricted to 200 people and adult sports would no longer resume on 1 September as planned.
Masks could be made mandatory on public transport, with a decision due on 14 August; all those who can cycle rather than take public transport should do so; and employers should take steps to make sure half as many people were on public transport in rush hour as at present.
Bjørn Guldvog, the director of the national health agency, said Norway would not be opening up yet to non-EU countries and Norwegians should not be travelling anywhere abroad unless necessary. “We see that most of the new cases in Norway are caused by imported infections,” he said.
Asked what people who had already booked a holiday in Europe should do, Høie replied: “Think about it. Even if you’re planning to visit a ‘green’ country it can very quickly turn ‘red’, before you travel or while you are there. Most low-infection countries have more cases than us.”
Norway, which has recorded fewer than 9,500 coronavirus cases and just 256 deaths, was one of the first European countries to begin lifting lockdown measures in early May. But infections have been ticking up from single figures early July to a weekly average of more than 40 this week.
Updated
Mosquito net distribution in Africa could help halve the number of deaths from malaria during the coronavirus outbreak, researchers say.
There are concerns that activities to control malaria, such as distributing insecticidal nets, may suffer as a result of the pandemic, PA Media reports.
Imperial College London’s Covid-19 Response Team estimates that malaria deaths could more than double in 2020 compared with 2019 if activities are disrupted.
In a study published in Nature Medicine, the researchers estimate the impact of disruption of malaria prevention activities and other core health services under four different Covid-19 epidemic scenarios.
Around 228 million long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) were due to be delivered across Sub-Saharan Africa this year.
The researchers say that if these mosquito nets are not deployed and preventative chemotherapy and case management is reduced by half for six months, there could be 779,000 malaria deaths in the area over 12 months.
Fever is a symptom of both Covid-19 and malaria. This can potentially confuse diagnosis in settings with limited testing for both diseases. Dr Thomas Churcher, from Imperial’s school of public health, said:
“It is vitally important to get malaria prevention measures out now to reduce the pressure on health systems as Covid-19 cases increase.”
Updated
Guardian reporters have spoken to doctors in Spain, France and Germany on the recent surge in cases as they brace for a potential second Covid-19 wave.
You can read their report here
Wall art in Kolkata, India, commemorates and pays tribute to essential service workers on the frontline in the fight against coronavirus.
Syria’s capital is facing a “terrible” spike in COVID-19 infections, with hospitals packed, patients scouring Facebook for advice and medics fearing the virus is spreading faster than clinics can test for it, AFP reports.
Authorities in government-held areas have confirmed 999 cases including 48 deaths - but even the health ministry admitted this week it lacks the “capacity... to carry out widespread testing in the provinces”.
Nine years of war means the country is set up up poorly to deal with pandemic. Week on week, COVID-19 appears to be spreading faster.
From July 30 to August 6, the Syrian health ministry logged more than 260 new cases, compared to only 154 infections the previous week.
“There has been a massive spread among cities,” the ministry admits, saying there are only 25,000 hospital beds available in government-controlled areas.
In Damascus, doctors report that public facilities are already packed and unable to admit new patients.
In June, the World Health Organisation said it was “concerned” about the spread of COVID-19 in Syria, citing “poor infrastructure and fragile health systems vastly weakened by conflict.”
But Health Minister Nizar Yaziji said Western sanctions against the government, not war, had hamstrung the country’s response.
“There are huge difficulties in getting ventilators because of the sanctions that have been imposed,” Yaziji said, claiming they also made it impossible for Syria to import medicines, sign deals with pharmaceutical companies or pay outside suppliers.
The United Nations and countries including Russia and China have provided direct medical support to Syria.
But doctors in Damascus say the official case numbers reflect only those admitted to hospital, not infected individuals who may be staying at home.
Spanish authorities have ordered about 32,000 people into lockdown in the central riverside town of Aranda del Duero in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus.
The residents of Aranda del Duero, known for its vineyards, will find their movements restricted to the absolute minimum and be barred from entering or leaving the town which lies 150 kilometres (90 miles) north of Madrid.
The move comes six weeks after a nationwide easing of such measures.
Other areas have already put local lockdowns in place, including in the Basque country, Catalonia and Aragon regions.
Updated
Eleven players from the Bangladesh national football squad have tested positive for coronavirus, dealing a blow to their 2022 World Cup qualifying campaign.
The infections were confirmed after 24 of 36 players scheduled to join a training camp organised by the team’s English coach, Jamie Day were tested, AFP reports.
“None of them carried any symptoms before coming for the test,” Bangladesh Football Federation general secretary Abu Nayeem Shohag said today.
Bangladesh has officially recorded just over 250,000 cases of coronavirus and more than 3,300 deaths from the illness.
Updated
A total of 49 new COVID-19 cases were confirmed in Malta on Friday, the second-highest number of patients to test positive in 24 hours since March, according to a Times of Malta report.
There were 52 new cases reported on April 7.
The 49 new cases were discovered from 1,717 swab tests - more than double the 825 tests that had been administered when 52 cases were found.
Updated
More than 6,000 British Airways staff have accepted voluntary redundancy as the airline moves to tell thousands more cabin crew and ground staff whether or not they will keep their jobs or face pay cuts, Mark Sweney reports.
The UK airline, which is seeking to make up to 12,000 job cuts to slash costs as the coronavirus pandemic hammers the travel market, was today sending one of three letters to affected staff who have not taken voluntary redundancy.
Staff will be told they are either being made redundant, that they do have a role but will have to sign a new contract – most likely with lower pay and worse terms and conditions – or that they will continue in the same role with the same contract.
Staff who are being made redundant will have the option of entering the airline’s priority return talent pool and will be fast-tracked into any new roles that become available.
Read Mark’s report here
Updated
Hundreds of children were sent home on Friday as Germany closed two schools over coronavirus infections, in a fresh blow to hopes for a return to normality after the summer holidays.
Days after schools in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania became the first to reopen full-time after the break, 800 students were forced to head home from the Goethe Gymnasium in Ludwigslust after a teacher tested positive for Covid-19, AFP reports.
The infected teacher has not given any lessons since the secondary school reopened on Monday, but all 55 teachers will have to be tested for the virus.
The school will remain closed until at least Wednesday, said a statement issued by the district.
Separately, 100 pupils from a primary school in Rostock district have been placed under quarantine for two weeks after a pupil was confirmed infected.
Updated
The UK chancellor Rishi Sunak has issued a warning that the government will “not hesitate” to impose quarantine restrictions on arrivals from other countries amid concerns that France may be the next destination to be removed from the UK’s travel corridor list, Simon Murphy reports.
Sunak said Downing Street constantly kept measures under review, highlighting that people needed to bear in mind there is a risk to travel plans because of the pandemic.
It comes as ministers are said to be closely monitoring the situation across the Channel as Covid-19 cases increase, with Norway already announcing it is reimposing quarantine restrictions on the country.
Removing France from the UK’s travel corridor list of countries, meaning people arriving from there would face mandatory two-week quarantine restrictions, would be a huge blow for holidaymakers, with the country being a popular tourist destination among Britons.
Late on Thursday it was announced that travellers arriving in the UK from Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas would have to quarantine for 14 days under new measures after a rise in Covid cases in those places. Spain and Luxembourg have already been removed from the travel corridor list.
Photograph: Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters
You can read Simon’s full report here
Updated
In France, lockdown destroyed 119,400 full-time private sector jobs in the second quarter of 2020 on top of nearly half a million lost in the first, according to an estimate by the Insee statistics agency.
Net year-on-year private sector job losses amounted to 480,800 in quarter two, or a decline of 2.5%, returning employment levels to what they were at the end of June 2017, shortly after Emmanuel Macron became president of France.
In the non-agricultural sector – industry, construction and market services – employment levels fell 0.6% in the second quarter after a 2.8% loss in the first, AFP reports.
“This is the largest half-year decline since the series (of measuring quarterly employment) began” 50 years ago, Insee said.
As payroll layoffs advanced, however, temporary employment rebounded by more 23% or 108,500 jobs in the second quarter after an historic drop of 40.4% in the previous quarter, Insee said.
“Monthly statistics show that temporary employment began to recover as early as May, and is still rising sharply in June, after sharp declines in March and April. By mid-2020, however, it remains 27.1% (or 214,800 jobs) below its level a year earlier.”
Insee noted a recovery trend for France’s manufacturing sector, with output up 14.4% following a boost of 22.2 percent in May.
For the industrial sector as a whole, growth was 12.7% in June after 19.9% in May.
But compared with February, the last month before the start of France’s strict stay-at-home lockdown to curb coronavirus spread, manufacturing output was down 12.4% and industrial output 11%.
As the after effects of the epidemic continue to ripple out, the customs department said France’s trade deficit widened sharply in the second quarter of 2020, with exports falling more than imports.
The deficit reached €20.4bn ($24.1bn) in the second quarter.
Nearly half of the drop in exports was due to the transport sector, with reduced exports of aeronautics and space products, cars and boats, the customs department said.
The energy deficit shrunk, however, thanks to lower oil prices and lower demand.
Previous figures showed France’s economy overall shrank a record 13.8% in the second quarter.
Updated
Greek public health officials are becoming increasingly concerned at the number of young people testing positive for the novel virus. An abrupt increase in cases nationwide is being attributed increasingly to younger Greeks flouting mask-wearing and social distancing rules.
Speaking on MEGA TV this morning the infectious disease expert, professor Charalambos Gogos, said Greece was in the midst of “a powerful outbreak of the pandemic.” Infection rates, he said, have been increasingly linked though increased testing to transmissions by younger aged groups who were “asymptomatic.”
“Young people need to be very careful. They are spearheading the epidemic’s future [trajectory],” he told the channel.
The country has seen infections exceed numbers reached at the height of the pandemic in April. On Thursday, the national public health organisation, EODY, announced 153 new coronavirus cases with the tally surpassing 5,000 for the first time. Of that number only eleven had been located at ports of entry reflecting the increase in domestic infections and what prime minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis this week called a growing sense of “complacency” that appears to be fuelling the rise.
The average age of those being diagnosed positive is now 45, much younger than previously.
Greek islands that were once entirely Covid-free have also reported cases. Earlier today a team of public house officials rushed to Mykonos where a popular beach bar was closed and sealed off after seven employees tested positive for the virus. Local authorities on the Cycladic island have expressed growing anxiety over parties being held at private villas.
Closer to Athens, which has also experienced a spike in cases, a curfew was declared on the Argo Saronic island of Poros with bars and restaurants being ordered to close at 11 PM after 13 people were reported to have contracted the virus.
Hi. This is Caroline Davies taking over the blog for the next few hours. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com
Poland has ruled out a new nationwide lockdown after it reported 809 new coronavirus infections on Friday, the sixth record daily rise in two weeks.
According to the health ministry’s Twitter account, most of the cases were in and around big cities including the capital Warsaw, Katowice and Krakow.
It said 259 of the new infections were in the Silesia coalmining region, where the main city is Katowice. As of Friday 1,279 miners were infected, mostly in state-run coal producer PGG, data cited by state news agency PAP showed.
The conservative nationalist government has imposed stricter sanitary rules on a number of Polish counties, which include compulsory wearing of protective face masks outside the home.
It has banned conferences, sport events and concerts, closed cinemas and gyms, and imposed a 50-person limit on the number of people taking part in weddings though churches and hotels remain open.
But deputy prime minster Jacek Sasin told state television before the latest figures were announced:
There is no way that we would impose a general lockdown again.
“There is no talk today, with the rising number of infected people or very high number of those who are still infected, of coming back to closing the economy.”
Poland has reported 50,324 Covid-19 cases overall, and 1,787 deaths.
Critics have said the government is not conducting health checks on a big scale, and this means a lot of people who are infected are unaware of it and infect others.
Updated
Summary
Here’s a list of the key global coronavirus developments over the last few hours:
- Hong Kong has announced free mass testing for all residents, amid a third wave of Covid-19 infections. More than half the city’s total number of infections were detected in July, with 12 days in a row with cases above 100. The death toll reached 46.
- Thousands of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) and 500 hospital beds have been destroyed in the Beirut explosion. UN agencies are scrambling to support victims, while the its high commissioner has described the ongoing situation as “really dire” according to Reuters.
- More than 3.5 million health workers in India have embarked on a two-day strike over wages and PPE. It comes as the country recorded a record daily jump in coronavirus infections on Friday, taking the total to over two million. Many of those on strike have been conducting door-to-door checks to trace Covid-19 patients.
-
Emmanuel Macron has called a meeting of France’s defence council over the country’s continued rise in Covid-19 cases. The president said he was calling for “the greatest vigilance” among citizens after the number of infections grew by 33% in a week between 27 July and 2 August.
Updated
Beirut: hospital capacity falls and PPE destroyed
UN agencies are scrambling to support victims of the devastating warehouse explosion in Beirut, which has undermined an already weakened healthcare system in Lebanon, officials have said.
Bed capacity has fallen by 500 after hospitals were damaged in the blast, a World Health Organisation spokesman told a virtual United Nations briefing.
Meanwhile, containers holding thousands of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) – used to prevent the spread of coronavirus – have been destroyed.
Lebanon has recorded 5,672 cases of Covid-19 and 70 deaths according to official figures.
The UN high commissioner for human rights, Michelle Bachelet, described the ongoing situation in the city as “really dire”, according to Reuters.
On Thursday, Lebanese security forces fired teargas at anti-government protestors in Beirut, where 154 people died and more than 5,000 were injured when a huge pile of ammonium nitrate that had languished for years in a port warehouse ignited.
You can read our coverage of the demonstration here:
Updated
More than 3.5 million health workers in India have embarked on a two-day strike to secure better wages and personal protective equipment (PPE).
It comes as the country reported a record daily jump in Covid-19 infections of Friday, taking its total caseload to over two million.
“At least 100 health workers have died of Covid-19 in the country so far, but there has been no insurance provided to them by the government,” A. R, Sindhu secretary of the Centre of Trade Unions, a key participant in the ongoing strike, told Reuters.
Accredited Social Health Activists or ASHA workers, are the government’s recognised health workers who are usually the first point of contact in economically deprived sections, where there is limited or no direct access to health-care facilities.
They have been conducting door-to-door checks to trace Covid-19 patients.
A total of 10 unions representing the workers, who also include ambulance drivers and cooks at community centres, joined the strike.
A majority of them work on contracts with state governments at a monthly salary of about 3,000 Indian rupees ($40.02).
Nagalakshmi.D, a union leader of ASHA workers in the southern state of Karnataka. told Reuters:
In some places, we had a lot of difficulty reaching households, especially in the mountainous regions... Households would be very far apart and we had to get to each of them on foot.
“During rains, we had to cross rivers by boat and rope bridges too.”
On that note, my colleague Nazia Parveen has been reporting on how air passengers hoping for 1-metre social distancing during flights are being forced to pay for the luxury.
Dublin-based airline Ryanair has said there are no plans to socially distance in the skies. Chief executive Michael O’Leary said the airline would not be looking at keeping the middle seat free, describing the idea as “mad”, “hopelessly ineffective” and unaffordable. Instead, he shifted the responsibility for passenger safety on to the government calling for temperature checks at the airport.
Italy’s aviation regulator has threatened to ban Ryanair from its skies, alleging that the airline has not complied with rules brought in to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
You can read the full report here:
Updated
After the UK imposed a quarantine on people arriving from Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas on Thursday, my colleague Antonia Wilson has composed a handy list of the 24 countries Britons can travel to without restrictions.
Currently, these include France, Croatia, Greece, and Malta. You can read her full report here:
A number of countries have just reported their official daily coronavirus figures:
- The Philippines has reported 3,379 additional cases, bringing the country’s total to 122,754. The number of deaths also increased by 24 to 2,168.
- Indonesia has reported 2,473 new infections, bringing the country’s tally to 121,226. It also reported 72 further deaths on Friday, taking the total to 5,593.
- Hong Kong has reported 89 new coronavirus infections.
- Poland has reported a daily record of 809 new coronavirus infections.
More information on this to follow.
Updated
Following the news that more than 1 million people in Africa have been infected with Covid-19, the International Committee of the Red Cross has warned that health systems across the continent could be overwhelmed if measures to curb the disease are not followed.
Patrick Youssef, ICRC regional director for Africa, said:
It took Africa nearly five months to hit 500,000 Covid-19 cases, but about a month to double that number. Most of these cases are in South Africa, but around the continent we are seeing the virus spread beyond capital cities and into new areas.
“If measures against the virus are not followed, we fear that health care systems already weakened by conflict and violence could be overwhelmed by Covid-19.”
Updated
Hikma Pharmaceuticals has started manufacturing remdesivir, an approved treatment for Covid-19 from US-based biotech company Gilead, the British company’s chief executive officer said.
The batches of the antiviral drug, which the company said it would supply “soon”, are being made for an undisclosed amount at its facility in Portugal.
Gilead is expected to distribute the treatment, which was the first to be greenlit for the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
“The terms of the deal are confidential, we are simply a contract manufacturer for Gilead - they order products from us as they expect the sales to be,” CEO Siggi Olafsson told Reuters on Friday.
Hong Kong announces free mass testing
Hong Kong has announced free mass testing for all residents, amid a continuing third wave of infections.
More than half the city’s total number of infections were detected in July, with 12 days in a row with cases above 100. The death toll reached 46.
Recent days have seen consecutive case numbers below 100, but they remain high, and the government is expanding its testing and treatment capabilities. The testing is expected to be rolled out in two weeks and would be voluntary.
Carrie Lam, the region’s chief executive, made the announcement a short time ago. She appeared before a new government backdrop, with the former slogan of “we together” replaced by “fight the virus with Central Government’s full support”.
The arrival of medical assistance from mainland China for new temporary hospitals and mass testing, had sparked suspicion among some Hong Kongers, including fears of mass DNA collection for surveillance purposes.
Lam urged people not to resort to conspiracy theories and “please do not undermine our relationship with the central people’s government”.
There was “too much sneering and rumours going on,” and the labs were receiving de-identified samples, which would be disposed of after testing, Lam said.
The city is also trying to head of a Singapore-style outbreak among the population of foreign domestic workers, with as many as 51 coming into contact with two women infected with Covid-19.
Health authorities are conducting contact tracing after an Indonesian woman was diagnosed with the illness after having shared a number of crowded accommodations with other workers after she left her job. Some of those workers have since moved into their employers’ residences.
Another woman tested preliminary positive after moving into her employer’s house earlier this month, having spent a month living with four to six others in a flat managed by an employment agency.
Updated
Russian authorities have reported 5,241 new Covid-19 infections, pushing the country’s national tally to 877,135.
The official death toll also rose by 119 to 14,725 on Friday. Russia has the fourth largest caseload of the virus in the world, and the 11th highest number of related deaths.
Updated
Ukraine has recorded a daily record of new coronavirus cases since the start of the epidemic, as the health ministry urges people to observe safety measures.
New infections have been rising steadily in the country in recent weeks, and on Thursday the ministry said cases had risen by 1,453. Ukraine recorded 1,318 new cases on Wednesday, and 1,271 on Tuesday. The country’s death toll has also increased.
During a televised briefing, health minister Maksym Stepanov said:
The numbers are impressive and every day we set records. We have increasing numbers of complex cases, numbers of deaths. What numbers do we need to reach in order to think about compliance with the rules?”
He added that the total number of Covid-19 infections had reached 78,261, including 1,852 deaths and 43,055 recoveries. Most new cases were recorded in western Ukraine and the capital, Kyiv.
In March, the government imposed tough restrictions on citizens to curb the spread of the disease – including halting transport, closing cafes and banning public events – but eased them in May to allow the economy to recover from a lockdown-induced recession.
Unauthorised raves, long a fringe pastime with a hardcore techno following, have found a new fan base among young people in Paris denied a dance floor by the pandemic.
Licensed nightclubs have been closed in France since March under measures to contain the coronavirus, prompting DJs, who claim their sector risks “extinction”, to launch an urgent appeal to the government last month for the authorisation of “emergency party areas”, reports news agency Agence France-Presse.
In the meantime, “free parties” have sprung up around the capital, drawing new followers in young people unfamiliar with the underground techno dance scene, but desperate for a chance to let their hair down.
The Bois de Vincennes, a massive park with lakes, woods and open green spaces in the south-east of Paris, is at the epicentre of the phenomenon.
From the nearest metro stop, partygoers walk about 15 minutes, following the beat of the bass, until they find one of dozens of clandestine parties, hidden in the woods, in clearings illuminated by fairy lights.
In July, “free parties” in the park attracted as many as a thousand people at a time, many flouting guidelines to wear face masks and keep a safe distance from others to avoid contracting the coronavirus.
“I had never seen anything like it, it was completely crazy,” Illa Giannotti, cofounder of the Soeurs Malsaines (Sick Sisters) party-planning collective, said of the clamour.
Raves first appeared in France in the 1990s and were popular until a 2001 law forced organisers to register with the police beforehand, pushing a large, rebel section of the scene, and its faithful followers, underground.
Updated
Emmanuel Macron has called a meeting of France’s defence council for next week after concerns about the continued rise of Covid-19 in the country.
Macron said he was calling for “the greatest vigilance”. People should “systematically wear masks” inside and “when it is not possible to keep the safe distance”.
The president said France’s scientific experts, government ministers and health workers were on alert. “I believe we all have to get into the habit of wearing masks,” he said.
Macron’s comments came as the number of new patients diagnosed with the coronavirus rose 33% in a week between 27 July and 2 August, according to the public health body, Santé Publique France. The week before saw a jump of 57% in the number of new cases.
On Thursday, 1,604 new cases were reported in the previous 24 hours. The daily number has topped 1,000 a day repeatedly since the end of July.
On Tuesday, the scientific council advising the government warned France was in danger of a second wave and urged the French to respect protection measures, including social distancing and wearing masks.
The official figures released on Thursday show a total of 30, 312 deaths from the coronavirus in France, seven more in hospital in the previous 24 hours.
There are 175 clusters under investigation, an increase of 14 in 24-hours. The percentage of positive tests is 1.6%.
Updated
Switzerland has signed an agreement to secure early access to the Covid-19 vaccine US biotech company Moderna is developing, the government said on Friday.
The country, which has a population of 8.6 million people, will get 4.5m doses of the vaccine through the agreement, enough to vaccinate 2.25 million people if two doses are needed per patient as expected.
The Swiss government is also talking to other vaccine companies and has allocated 300m francs ($329m) to the project.
Updated
Following surges in new coronavirus infections and deaths around the world, here is an up to date tally of the worst-hit countries according to official data collated by John Hopkins University.
Countries with the highest numbers of recorded Covid-19 cases on 7 August 2020:
1. US (4,883,646)
2. Brazil (2,912,212)
3. India (2,027,074)
4. Russia (870,187)
5. South Africa (538,184)
6. Mexico (462,690)
7. Peru (447,624)
8. Chile (366,671)
9. Colombia (357,710)
10. Iran (320,117)
Countries with the highest numbers of recorded Covid-19 deaths on 7 August 2020:
1. US (160,104)
2. Brazil (98,493)
3. Mexico (50,517)
4. UK (46,498)
5. India (41,585)
6. Italy (35,187)
7. France (30,308)
8. Spain (28,500)
9. Peru (20,424)
10. Iran (17,976)
Updated
Thousands of trainee doctors have protested in South Korea against a government plan to increase the number of medical students in the country, arguing it would be a poor use of additional funding for the health sector.
The government said its goal to increase the number of medical students by 4,000 over the next decade was necessary to better prepare for public health emergencies such as the Covid-19 pandemic.
But student doctors believe the money would be better spent improving the salaries of existing trainees, and would encourage more to move from the capital Seoul to rural areas where more health professionals are needed.
Prime minister Chung Sye-kyun had urged the intern and resident doctors to call off the 24-hour strike, which came as South Korea battles small but persistent clusters of coronavirus infections. In comments posted online, he said:
It is very concerning that a medical gap will occur in ERs and ICUs that have direct links with the citizens’ lives.”
Around 12,000 trainee doctors took part in the silent protest outside the parliament in Seoul, while wearing face masks and shields.
Strike organiser, the Korean Intern Resident Association (KIRA), had issued guidelines ahead of the gathering barring singing or chanting to avoid the spread of the virus.
Updated
The UK will not hesitate to add more countries to its quarantine list, chancellor Rishi Sunak said on Friday when asked if France could join Spain on the list.
“If we need to take action as you’ve seen overnight we will of course not hesitate to do that,” Sunak told Sky News, adding that during a pandemic there was a risk that people could have their travel plans disrupted.
On Thursday night, Britain said that travellers arriving in the UK from Belgium, Andorra and the Bahamas would need to quarantine for 14 days.
I’m Amy Walker, taking over from my colleague Martin Farrer. I’ll be with you until 11am, bringing you all the latest global coronavirus developments.
Summary
If you’re just joining us or you need a catch-up on what’s been going on, here’s a summary of the main developments in the last few hours:
-
WHO warns against “vaccine nationalism”. The head of the World Health Organization says richer countries must not keep treatments for Covid-19 to themselves and instead share any vaccines with poorer nations.
- US death toll could reach 300,000 by December. The latest forecast by researchers at the University of Washington paints a grim picture for the US, which already has the world’s highest number of deaths at more than 159,000. But they say more mask-wearing could save 70,000 lives.
- India has seen another large jump in new cases, registering a record daily jump of 62,538 coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours. The rise takes the country’s total to 2.03 million, the health ministry said.
- UK doctors warn on halting normal hospital care. Thousands of people suffering from cancer, heart trouble or breathing difficulties could die if the NHS suspends regular care in the event of a second wave of coronavirus.
- Germany records another three-month high in daily cases. The Robert Koch Institute said Germany had registered another 1,147 cases to midnight on Thursday, raising more alarms about a second wave of cases in Europe.
- Stock markets in China and Hong Kong have taken a battering after Donald Trump issued an executive order banning transactions with the Chinese owners of the apps Tiktok and Wechat. Investors expect China to retalliate as relations between Beijing and Washington continue to worsen in the wake of the pandemic.
- Washington talks fail to reach deal. Talks between Democrats in Congress and the Trump administration over a further stimulus for the US economy have broken up without a deal. The two sides will meet again later on Friday.
- Bolsonaro tells Brazilians to “get on with your lives”. The Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro has attracted more ire after saying that people should shrug off the virus, which has claimed almost 100,000 lives in the country.
We’ve got a bit more on the latest figures from India, which show that the country now has more than 2 million cases after recording more than 62,000 cases in the past 24 hours. It makes India the third country to pass the 2 million mark after the US and Brazil.
Authorities are concerned that infections have taken hold in all parts of India, which has a huge population of 1.3 billion people.
“A country of India’s size and diversity has multiple epidemics in different phases,” Rajib Dasgupta, head of the Centre of Social Medicine and Community Health at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, told Reuters.
India has been posting an average of around 50,000 new cases a day since mid-June, but experts say its testing rate at 16,035 per million people is far too low.
The apparent flouting of the UK’s lockdown rules by Boris Johnson’s most senior aide, Dominic Cummings , undermined public trust in the government’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, a study published in The Lancet has found.
The University College London research on the views of 40,000 people found a significant decline in public confidence after the Guardian and Daily Mirror revealed that Cummings had travelled 264 miles to Durham with his sick wife and child despite official advice that people “should not be visiting family members who do not live in your home”.
Read the full story here:
In the week that Disney put its Mulan remake straight to the small screen, cinemas need to prove to audiences they’re safe. Our writers have braved screenings from Beijing to Belfast to try and find out. Here’s what they found:
India has seen another large jump in new cases, registering a record daily jump of 62,538 coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours.
The rise takes the country’s total to 2.03 million, the health ministry said.
The country became the third nation to record more than 2 million cases of the novel coronavirus, behind the United States and Brazil, as infections spread further to smaller towns and rural areas.
As people in the UK start to wake up, here are some of the front pages of the papers with various coronavirus themes taking top spot, starting with the Guardian.
The Times ...
THE TIMES: Britons on their way to France risk quarantine #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/GuhY4Ipsgt
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) August 6, 2020
The Scotsman ...
SCOTSMAN: Young Scots socialising now ‘one of biggest Covid risks’ #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/Aed7Jqt7ZR
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) August 6, 2020
The FT ...
FT: @Microsoft shifts focus to buying the entire @tiktok_us operation #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/PdlmwmqcfT
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) August 6, 2020
And the Mail.
MAIL: @pritipatel : send in navy to tackle migrant crisis #TomorrowsPapersToday pic.twitter.com/XqQ5vK9B1o
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) August 6, 2020
Updated
Newscorp, the media empire built by Rupert Murdoch, has suffered a $1.5bn loss for the last financial year, company figures show today, as long-term decline in newspaper sales was compounded by the pandemic’s economic shock.
News Corp Australia and News UK revenue declined 16% and 13% respectively across the year.
In the last quarter, as Covid-19 hit, revenue declined 31% at News Corp Australia and 22% at News UK.
Read more here:
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2020/aug/07/news-corp-posts-15bn-loss-driven-by-sharp-declines-in-newspaper-revenue
Updated
More bad economic news out of the US: employment growth has slowed dramatically. There are 13m fewer people on payrolls around the country than at the start of the pandemic, and a $600-a-week government unemployment benefit ended last Friday.
From Reuters:
US employment growth likely slowed significantly in July amid a resurgence in new Covid-19 infections, which would provide the clearest evidence yet that the economy’s recovery from the recession caused by the pandemic was faltering.
The Labor Department’s closely watched employment report on Friday could pile pressure on the White House and Congress to speed up negotiations on another aid package.
Talks have been dragging over differences on major issues including the size of a government benefit for tens of millions of unemployed workers.
A $600 weekly unemployment benefit supplement expired last Friday, while thousands of businesses have burned through loans offered by the government to help with wages.
A labor market relapse would be more bad news for President Donald Trump, who is lagging in opinion polls behind former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic Party nominee for the 3 November election.
“The steam has gone out of the engine and the economy is beginning to slow,” Sung Won Sohn, a finance and economics professor at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, said.
“The loss of momentum will continue and my concern is that the combination of the virus resurgence and lack of action by Congress could really push employment into negative territory.”
According to a Reuters survey of economists, non-farm payrolls likely increased by 1.58m jobs in July, which would be a sharp step-down from the record 4.8m in June.
That would leave payrolls 13.1m below their pre-pandemic level.
Employment peaked at 152.5m in February.
The economy, which entered into recession in February, suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression in the second quarter, with gross domestic product dropping at its steepest pace in at least 73 years.
Updated
If you want a quick catch up on all that is good about this blog then look no further than the global report we’ve just launched which leads on the WHO warning about “vaccine nationalism”.
Tiktok and Wechat ban hurts share markets
Stock markets in Asia have gone downhill since Trump’s announcement about banning Tiktok and Wechat owner Tencent as investors fear worsening US-China relations
The Nikkei in Japan is off 0.9% and all the mainland China bourses are down more thn 1%. The ASX200 is Sydney has lost 0.86%.
Tencent’s shares are taking a pasting in Hong Kong, where they are down 6%.
#Tencent is plunging 6.6% in HK.
— YUAN TALKS (@YuanTalks) August 7, 2020
US President #Trump issued executive orders banning any US transactions with ByteDance, owner of video-sharing app TikTok, and Tencent, owner of the WeChat app, starting in 45 days.https://t.co/vVS0O9qEIi pic.twitter.com/xRpzyMa6S2
There are also concerns about US non-farm payroll figures (basically the unemployment number) later on Friday which will not be great.
Slightly off topic, but this is an interesting chart from Bloomberg’s David Ingles.
Most of the things you've seen in the news and will continue to see in the decades to come can be traced back to this one, single chart. pic.twitter.com/kGb40JUtwU
— David Ingles (@DavidInglesTV) June 11, 2020
The US state department has withdrawn its blanket notice advising people not to travel overseas because of the pandemic, Associated Press reports. The advisory was first issued in March .
We have lifted the Global Level 4 Health Advisory, which advised Americans to avoid international travel due to COVID-19. We are returning to country-specific levels of travel advice (Levels 1-4), so that travelers can make informed travel decisions. https://t.co/G7snE3Wzwe pic.twitter.com/l9xpjbwccv
— Travel - State Dept (@TravelGov) August 6, 2020
However, the department has reinstated its advice telling Americans not to travel to Mexico as it continues with country-specific advice.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany jumped by 1,147 to 214,214, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Friday. That is higher than Thursday’s figure, which was the worst for three months.
The reported death toll rose by eight to 9,183, the tally showed.
Updated
Global cases pass 19 million
The total number of people who have contracted Covid-19 has edged past 19 million, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
More than 700,000 people have died around the world.
Victoria records 450 new cases, 11 deaths
The Australian state of Victoria has racked up another 450 cases in the past 24 hours, state premier Daniel Andrews said a few minutes ago.
The state is under severe lockdown after a surge of cases running at hundreds a day derailed the nation’s hitherto successful efforts to contain the virus.
Follow all the news from Australia at our other live blog, including the latest tally from New South Wales which was 11 new cases today.
US update: Mike De Wine, the governor of Ohio, has tested negative for Covid-19 after earlier testing positive just before he was due to meet Donald Trump.
I tested negative in second test that I took today for COVID-19. First Lady Fran DeWine and staff members have also all tested negative for COVID-19. Thanks to all for the well wishes.
— Mike DeWine (@MikeDeWine) August 7, 2020
Trump outlaws Tiktok and Wechat as 'threats to national security'
Donald Trump has issued an executive order banning any US companies from making transactions with ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the video-sharing app TikTok.
The US president’s order claims that the app may be used for disinformation campaigns that benefit the Chinese Communist party and the United States “must take aggressive action against the owners of TikTok to protect our national security”.
BREAKING: President Trump just issued an executive order "on Addressing the Threat Posed by TikTok." It takes effect in 45 days, prohibits "any transaction" with ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, and will almost certainly face legal challenges. pic.twitter.com/Ma9XOfYgOB
— Hunter Walker (@hunterw) August 7, 2020
The ban starts in 45 days and a similar ban will also apply to Tencent, the Chinese owner of the mesenger app Wechat.
China’s alleged mishandling of the coronavirus has been a constant theme of Donald Trump’s pronouncements on the outbreak as he has sought to shift blame for the huge number of cases in the US.
Incredible to see this unfolding. To me WeChat is a much bigger deal. TikTok was made because the Great Firewall cut China off, but WeChat is one of the few apps that actually spans the filters and links communities within and outside China. Of course there will be workarounds... https://t.co/kDgPjAy9hS
— Paul Mozur 孟建国 (@paulmozur) August 7, 2020
Here’s our full story:
Updated
China has logged 37 new coronavirus cases in the 24 hours to midnight on Thursday, the country’s health authority has announced – the same as the day before.
Of the new cases, 10 were imported infections involving travellers from overseas compared with seven such cases reported a day earlier.
Chinese mainland reported 37 new confirmed #COVID19 cases (26 in #Xinjiang, 1 in #Beijing), and 14 new asymptomatic COVID-19 patients pic.twitter.com/SwjfAPeIn0
— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) August 7, 2020
Total number of infections in mainland China now stand at 84,565.
The mayor of Los Angeles has threatened to cut water and power supplies to houses where people hold large parties after a spate of gatherings violating Covid-19 restrictions at mansions in the Hollywood hills.
With bars and clubs shut due to the resurgence of coronavirus, some Angelenos have tried to get around the socialising problems by hosting private functions.
But city mayor Eric Garcetti said on Wednesday that large house parties “have essentially become nightclubs in the hills” arguing the events can become “superspreaders” of coronavirus as bars and nightlife in the city remain shut.
Here’s the full story:
'Get on with your lives,' Bolsonaro tells Brazilians
Our Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, reports:
Brazil’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, has sparked renewed outrage for telling Brazilians they should “get on with life” as the country prepares to mark another terrible Covid-19 milestone, of 100,000 deaths.
The far-right populist made the comments in a weekly broadcast on social media, as the official death toll rose to 98,493.
Flanked by his interim health minister who assumed his position after two predecessors left government after clashing with their boss over Covid-19, Bolsonaro said:
I’m sorry about all the deaths ... but let’s get on with our lives – get on with our lives and look for a way of getting away with this problem.
Bolsonaro has been internationally condemned for his handling of the emergency and his decision to repeatedly undermine social distancing measures. But polls suggest his behaviour has yet to have a major impact on his popularity with about 30% of the country continuing to support him.
Bolsonaro’s stop-gap health minister, the army general Eduardo Pazuello, compared the pandemic to HIV. “HIV continues to exist ... most [people who are HIV-positive] get treated - and life goes on. And it will be like this with coronavirus too,” he claimed.
Bolsonaro’s comments caused immediate outrage. “Your disregard for life is repugnant,” tweeted the left-wing senator Weverton Rocha.
Updated
US parties fail to reach agreement on stimulus
Talks between US congressional Democrat leaders and the White House on the next stimulus package for the economy have broken up without any agreement.
Steve Mnuchin, the treasury secretary, said the two sides were close on a number of issues but still disagreed on others.
STATUS UPDATE at the Capitol:
— Lisa Desjardins (@LisaDNews) August 7, 2020
Not great.
The two sides still "very far apart" on significant coronavirus issues after meeting 3 hours.
Pelosi said she was disappointed.
Mnuchin said they will start tomorrow by phone, to see if even worth meeting in person.
But Nancy Pelosi, the leader of the House of Representatives, said the two sides were “very far apart” , adding that it was “most unfortunate”.
Pelosi and senator Chuck Schumer maintain that they will not compromise on an extension for the $600 per week unemployment benefit that Republicans have wanted to cut down.
Talks will resume again on Friday.
Deaths from Covid-19 in Mexico have passed 50,000. The health ministry on Thursday reported 6,590 new confirmed coronavirus infections and 819 fatalities, bringing the country’s totals to 462,690 cases and 50,517 deaths.
Just over two weeks ago, the health ministry reported 40,000 deaths.
Updated
Hundreds of types of face masks have been withdrawn from sale in Australia over concerns that they don’t offer proper protection from infection.
The regulator said of one supplier that the “single use surgical masks have not provided sufficient evidence to show compliance … Continued use of these particular surgical masks may increase the risk of spreading infections (including Covid-19) between individuals”
Here’s the full story:
Mike DeWine, governor of Ohio, has tested positive for the coronavirus, forcing him to scrap a planned meeting with Donald Trump.
Ohio governor tests positive for COVID-19 and cancels plans to greet Trump in Cleveland https://t.co/7sCthahpbN pic.twitter.com/zuEscGYKIb
— Reuters (@Reuters) August 7, 2020
The Republican governor, who was an early advocate among his party of wearing masks and other pandemic precautions, said he took a test arranged by the White House in Cleveland as part of standard protocol before he was to meet Trump at an airport in Cleveland. He had planned to join the president on a visit to the Whirlpool Corp. plant in northwest Ohio.
Uber’s ride-sharing business recovered slightly from earlier in the year but booking still remained 75% down on the same period last year thanks to the pandemic, the company said as it revealed its second quarter figures.
However, it still aims to make a profit by the end of 2021 and will be helped by growing demand for its Uber Eats food delivery service as Americans stayed at home.
Everything to know about @Uber second-quarter earnings (Hint: It's all about the food) $UBERhttps://t.co/McTXmUM4yW pic.twitter.com/05b5iq1Y6L
— Danielle Abril (@DanielleDigest) August 6, 2020
Uber posted a $1.8bn net loss from April to June, including charges related to laying off 23% of its global workforce during a period when infections of the novel coronavirus continued to spread in the United States, Uber’s largest market.
Deaths in US 'could reach 300,000' – study
Staying with the United States, a study from the University of Washington says that 300,000 Americans could be dead by December if the leaders of large cities fail to drive through counter measures such as mask-wearing
The team at the university’s respected Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation said 70,000 lives could be saved if more people wore face coverings during the pandemic.
“We’re seeing a rollercoaster in the United States. It appears that people are wearing masks and socially distancing more frequently as infections increase, then after a while as infections drop, people let their guard down,” Dr Christopher Murray, director of the IHME said in announcing the university’s latest forecast.
More than 159,000 people have died in the US from Covid-19 so far but new daily cases have been falling in recent weeks.
The IHME said infections were falling in former epicentres such as Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas, but rising in Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, and Virginia.
Talks over the latest stimulus package for the American economy aren’t going well. Democratic Congressional leaders went to the White House to thrash out a deal by Friday but it’s looking a long way off.
Follow all the developments at our US live blog:
As I mentioned in the intro, Australia’s government has had more success in extending its relief package and you can ctach up with that and how things are going in the crisis-hit state of Victoria right here.
WHO warns against 'vaccine nationalism'
The World Health Organization has warned against “vaccine nationalism,” saying that richer countries that develop treatments cannot expect to remain safe if poor nations remained exposed.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said it would be in the interest of wealthier nations to help every country protect itself.
“Vaccine nationalism is not good, it will not help us,” Tedros told the Aspen Security Forum in the United States, via video-link from the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva.
“For the world to recover faster, it has to recover together, because it’s a globalised world: the economies are intertwined. Part of the world or a few countries cannot be a safe haven and recover.
“The damage from COVID-19 could be less when those countries who... have the funding commit to this.”
Welcome
Good morning/afternoon/evening. I’m Martin Farrer and I’ll be taking you through the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Here are the main points of the last 24 hours:
- Africa passes one million confirmed virus cases. Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases have surpassed one million, but global health experts say the true toll is likely several times higher, reflecting the gaping lack of testing for the continent’s 1.3 billion people.
- New York City has opened new traveller checkpoints to register visitors and residents returning from nearly three dozen states who are required to quarantine for 14 days, an initiative that drew swift criticism from privacy advocates.
- Travellers returning to UK from Belgium, the Bahamas and Andorra to quarantine from Saturday. In a tweet, transport secretary Grant Shapps said: “Data shows we need to remove Andorra, Belgium and The Bahamas from our list of coronavirus Travel Corridors in order to keep infection rates DOWN.”
- US lifts global health coronavirus travel advisory. The US has lifted a global health advisory imposed in March that advised US citizens to avoid all international travel because of the coronavirus pandemic.
- Australian government extends federal furlough payment scheme. As the outbreak in Victoria worsens, Canberra has extended the life of its “jobkeeper” scheme, while Russell Crowe comes to the aid of embattled Victorian premier.
- A rise in the Covid-19 infection rate in Ireland is a “serious concern”. Ireland has seen a rise since last Thursday and has identified a number of clusters of infections in meat plants and accommodation for asylum seekers, while cases in Greece have passed 5,000 in a week.
- French universities will reopen in September. Institutions will reopen after nearly six months but students will be encouraged to wear face masks and social distance.
- US top infectious disease expert forced to hire security to protect family. Anthony Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus taskforce, told CNN the pandemic has brought out “the best of people and the worst of people, and, you know, getting death threats for me and my family and harassing my daughters to the point where I have to get security”.
- Brazil decree to provide $356 million for coronavirus vaccine. Jair Bolsonaro has issued a decree to provide 1.9bn reais ($356m) in funds to purchase and eventually produce a Covid-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca and Oxford University researchers.
