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https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2020/aug/19/coronavirus-live-news-global-cases-near-22m-as-wall-street-record-defies-economic-gloom

Turkey’s death toll from the coronavirus rose by 20 on Tuesday to 6,016, health ministry data showed, with the total number of identified cases rising to 251,805.

The data showed that 1,263 new cases were identified in the last 24 hours, rising from 1,233 a day earlier, Reuters reports.

Hundreds of New York University students and staff waited in line outside a white tent on Tuesday for coronavirus testing ahead of some classes resuming in early September, a scene expected to unfold on many US campuses in coming weeks.

NYU is testing students who have chosen in-person learning, with classes for undergraduates beginning on 2 September. The university, housed in hundreds of buildings across lower Manhattan, is also giving students the options of remote learning or a blended program between the two.

New York, once the US epicenter of the pandemic, has an infection rate below 1%, a benchmark for restarting certain activities coupled with social distancing and mask wearing.

Schools in parts of the country that have a coronavirus infection positivity rate of more than 10% would be better off easing into the new academic year with virtual classrooms, Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious diseases expert, said on Tuesday.

Fauci said in a virtual conference hosted by health information website Healthline that primary and secondary schools as a default position should try and reopen for the psychological health of children, but no single approach should apply to every school in the country.

“To make a statement on one side vs the other and take the country as a whole won’t work, we’re so heterogeneous with the infections,” Fauci said.

Some US schools have closed almost as quickly as they welcomed back students as the level of new cases per day remains high in many states, including California, Florida and Texas.

The United States has more than 5 million cases of confirmed coronavirus infections, the highest in the world, according to a Reuters tally, with more than 170,000 reported fatalities.

Many colleges have plans to test students who are coming back to campus, even if classes are all remote, according to guidance posted on school websites.

At some schools, a coronavirus test site is the first place students must go when they arrive on campus before going to their dorms. They may not enter any other campus buildings until the result comes back negative, which could take several days in some cases.

Testing availability on campuses will vary.

NYU plans to test a random sampling of students, faculty and staff each week of the fall semester, adding up to several thousand tests per week.

Florida State University has set an “aspirational goal” of giving Covid-19 tests to all faculty, staff, and students returning campus this fall. Northwestern University said all students living in residence halls will be tested upon arrival to campus and all students partaking in any in-person learning must be tested before the start of the academic quarter on 21 September.

At Yale University the school plans to pay for every student on campus to be tested upon arrival and twice a week throughout the fall semester.

Many elementary, secondary, high schools and colleges scheduled to begin the new term in August or September are mandating remote learning, as teachers unions opposed in-person instruction.

Brazil reported 47,784 new cases of coronavirus and 1,352 deaths in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Tuesday.

Brazil has now registered 3,407,354 cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from Covid-19 has risen to 109,888, according to ministry data, marking the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak after the United States.

Summary

As Australia wakes up, here is a summary of the main developments from the last few hours:

  • Global coronavirus cases are approaching 22 million and the global death toll has risen to almost 776,000. According to the tally by John Hopkins University, the biggest drivers of the case counts is the United States and Brazil. The US has recorded over 5.45 million cases and more than 170,000 lives have been lost.
  • The Netherlands could go “back to square one” if the country doesn’t control new infections, the Dutch PM Mark Rutte warned. Without imposing mandatory restrictions, Rutte gave people urgent advice not to hold parties at home and to limit events like birthday celebrations and other private house gatherings to a maximum of six people.
  • Ireland’s nationwide coronavirus restrictions are being “significantly tightened” until at least 13 September as cases surged at the fourth highest rate in Europe. Following the rise in the last three weeks, people have been urged to restrict visitors to their homes, avoid public transport and for older people to limit their contacts. “We’re absolutely not at a stage where we can return to normality. We are at another critical moment,” the Taoiseach Michael Martin said.
  • Germany is expected to extend its pandemic furlough scheme to 24 months. The chancellor Angela Merkel indicated she welcomed the proposal to let the kurzarbeit programme run on until 2021. A final decision is expected on 25 August.
  • Lebanese authorities announced a new lockdown and an overnight curfew to rein in a surge in infections. The new measures will come into effect on Friday and last just over two weeks. Areas damaged by the devastating explosion that hit Beirut on 4 August will be exempt from the restrictions, as clean-up efforts continue across multiple neighbourhoods.
  • South Africa will launch clinical trials of a US-developed coronavirus vaccine with 2,900 volunteers this week. It’s the second such study in the African country worst hit by the disease. Known as NVX-CoV2373, the vaccine was developed by US biotech company Novavax from the genetic sequence of SARSCoV2. It will be administered to the first volunteer in the randomised, observer-blinded trial on Wednesday.
  • Young are not invincible amid the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization warned. The WHO said Covid-19 is now being spread mainly by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, who may be unaware they are infected, potentially transmitting the disease to more vulnerable groups. “We are seeing young people who are ending up in ICU. Young people are dying from this virus,” WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said.

Updated

Countries led by women had “systematically and significantly better” Covid-19 outcomes, research appears to show, locking down earlier and suffering half as many deaths on average as those led by men, Jon Henley reports.

The relative early success of leaders such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen and Finland’s Sanna Marin has so far attracted many headlines but little academic attention.

The analysis of 194 countries, published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the World Economic Forum, suggests the difference is real and “may be explained by the proactive and coordinated policy responses” adopted by female leaders.

Even after clear and frequently cited outliers such as New Zealand and Germany – and the US for male leaders – were removed from the statistics, the study found, the case for the relative success of female leaders was only strengthened.

Get the full story here:

Indigenous protesters on key Brazilian grain highway BR-163 temporarily lifted their roadblock on Tuesday to allow a long line of trucks carrying corn to pass, but said they will stop traffic again in late afternoon.

Members of the Kayapó tribe had blocked the route in center-west Brazil on Monday with tires and wooden planks, protesting against a lack of government protection from the coronavirus pandemic that has killed several of their elders. That jammed up loaded trucks for 3 kilometers.

The highway links towns in the nation’s biggest farm state Mato Grosso to the port of Miritituba, an important export river gateway in Pará state.

With the soy season almost over, the main grain transported on the road at present is corn.

Highway police in Santarém confirmed that the tribe had lifted their blockade and planned to restore their barriers at 6pm (21.00 GMT) when a court order was due to arrive.

A judge issued a ruling on Monday ordering the demonstrators to unblock the road in the region of Novo Progresso, southern Pará state.

Kayapó men carrying wooden weapons and wearing warrior body paint and headdresses told a Reuters photographer that they would continue their protest because no authority had come to hear their demands.

They were also protesting against the so-called Ferrogrão railway, set to cross part of the Amazon to connect grain-producing Mato Grosso state to river ports for soy and corn.

The railway will run parallel to the BR-163 highway, which has become an important route for exporting grains to the river ports for transshipment onto larger ships on the Amazon river.

The Kayapo, who live on the adjacent Menkragnoti e Baú indigenous reservations, claim the road has brought illness to their villages and are seeking reparation money.

The Canadian province of Quebec on Tuesday announced plans to tackle earlier mistakes in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic, while preparing its health sector against a possible second wave of coronavirus in the autumn.

Quebec, once the country’s hardest-hit province, will boost public health sector hiring, reduce screening delays, and ensure staff like orderlies can no longer work at multiple long-term care facilities, a practice previously blamed for spreading the virus, the health minister Christian Dubé told reporters.

Canada has flattened its curve of coronavirus cases since the spring, but some of the country’s 10 provinces have reported higher numbers of Covid-19 infections recently, as the economy restarts and restrictions on social gathering are relaxed. Schools across Canada will be reopening in autumn.

Quebec accounts for about half the country’s 122,872 total coronavirus cases and more than half of its 9,032 deaths. But the once hard-hit province has only reported 46 new cases and two deaths in the last 24 hours, according to government data.

“We have done an appraisal of this first wave so we can now establish the solution to be implemented in view of a potential second wave,” Dubé said.

There will no longer be movement of workers, other than nurses under certain conditions, between seniors’ homes, where most of the province’s 5,727 Covid-19 deaths took place.

Under the plan, Quebec will also invest C$106m (£61m) in public health to allow for the hiring of 1,000 workers to carry out contact tracing and infection control.

Updated

Pizza Express has revealed plans to close almost a fifth of its UK restaurants under a financial restructuring that places 1,100 jobs at risk, Sky News reports.

The casual pizza chain said a rescue deal, which must be agreed by creditors, will see 73 of its 470 restaurants close permanently following the deep disruption to trading caused by the coronavirus lockdown and the resulting high street jobs crisis.

UK & Ireland managing director, Zoe Bowley, said the company hoped to redeploy some of the staff impacted.

Global coronavirus cases approach 22 million

The tally for confirmed cases of Covid-19 around the world reached 21.95 million on Tuesday, and the global death toll rose to almost 776,000.

According to data collated by John Hopkins University, the United States leads the world with over 5.45 million cases and more than 170,000 lives lost.

Brazil is the country with the second highest number of registered cases and deaths with 3.36 million cases and 108,536 deaths.

It’s followed by India, which has recorded 2.7 million cases, and Mexico which has confirmed 57,023 fatalities.

The Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte tightened recommended measures to rein in the spread of coronavirus, warning that if the country does not control new infections the Netherlands could go “back to square one”.

Rutte gave people urgent advice not to hold parties at home and to limit events like birthday celebrations and other private house gatherings to a maximum of six people. However, the Dutch government did not impose any new mandatory restrictions.

“If were not careful, we will be back to square one inside the foreseeable future,” Rutte warned.

“If people want to organise parties for more than six people, they should rent a space where all guests can maintain social distance while seated,” the prime minister said. He also urged people to continue working from home.

His comments came after the Dutch public health institute announced that there had been just over 4,000 new confirmed cases in the Netherlands over the last week, around the same number as the previous week.

The percentage of positive tests in the country edged very slightly lower to 3.5%. The confirmed Covid-19 death toll in the Netherlands stood at 6,175 as of Tuesday, although the true figure is believed to be higher because many people thought to have died were not tested.

The number of new confirmed cases has been on the rise since the Netherlands removed most of its coronavirus restrictions on 1 July. Students returned to high schools in the country’s north this week for the first time in months without requirements for face masks or social distancing between children.

To prevent infections at schools, Rutte said students must stay home if they have coronavirus symptoms and if somebody in their family tested positive for the virus.

We showed between March and June that we could, together, get on top of the virus. Now we have to show that we can keep the virus under control together.

Updated

Ireland tightens restrictions as cases surge at fourth highest rate in Europe

Ireland significantly tightened its nationwide coronavirus restrictions on Tuesday to rein in an increase in cases, urging everyone to restrict visitors to their homes, avoid public transport and for older people to limit their contacts.

A surge in cases over the last three weeks after Ireland had one of Europe’s lowest infection rates for several weeks, pushed the country’s 14-day cumulative cases per 100,000 population to 26 and led to the first local lockdown last week.

The 190 new cases on Tuesday, the second highest daily rise since early May, took the rate of growth in the last two weeks to the fourth highest in Europe and meant infections would inevitably spread to the most vulnerable if it continued, the prime minister Micheal Martin said.

“We’re absolutely not at a stage where we can return to normality. We are at another critical moment,” the Taoiseach told a news conference, saying the new measures would stay in place until 13 September.

Ireland has adopted one of the most cautious approaches in Europe in fighting the virus, reopening its economy at a slower pace and keeping many restrictions in place for longer.

The government has already twice-delayed the final phase of its reopening plan that would allow nightclubs and all pubs to open, having sped up the plan in June when cases began to fall.

As well as cutting to six the number of visitors allowed in a home - where most clusters have occurred - outdoor gatherings are being restricted to 15 people from 200, with all fans banned from sport. Police will get greater powers to enforce the rules.

Restaurants and pubs that serve food can stay open. Martin said the aim of the restrictions was to make sure key parts of the economy kept trading and schools could reopen for the first time since March.

“Schools are so important to children in general, to society, to the economy as well, that we want our schools to reopen, and our schools will reopen,” Martin said.

Updated

Zimbabwe has shortened an overnight curfew imposed to combat the coronavirus pandemic and extended business hours despite rising cases, the government said after a weekly cabinet meeting.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa last month announced a 6pm to 6am curfew, but the information minister Monica Mutsvangwa said this had left commuters stranded without transport.

The overnight curfew will now start at 8pm, while business hours will be extended to 4.30pm from 3pm.

Zimbabwe has recorded 5,308 cases and 135 deaths.

Officials fear a wholesale removal of restrictions on movement would see a surge in infections and overwhelm a health sector that is collapsing due to strikes by workers and lack of medicines and protective clothing.

The government banned public taxis in March, but the state bus service is failing to cope, forcing commuters to queue well beyond curfew hours.

That’s all from me, Caroline Davies . Thank you for your time.

Ireland’s minister for health Stephen Donnelly said 190 new cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed on Tuesday.

He said:

We’re now seeing multiple clusters throughout the country, in people’s homes, in multiple workplaces and in a number of other social settings. Our 14-day cumulative cases per hundred thousand population, a key measure looked at by NPHET, is now 26 - that’s come up from four. Our five-day average of new cases is 116 new cases per day and rising. Today, the total number of new cases is 190.”

Taoiseach Micheal Martin said:

The evidence is that a large number of people are acting as if the virus is no threat to them or that it is OK to take a few more risks. Many people seem to believe that if they or those they are socialising with have no symptoms there is no problem. We are at a point where we need to recommit ourselves to key behaviours and to accept additional controls.”

He noted multiple outbreaks amongst households and in social activity settings.

Germany is expected to extend its pandemic furlough scheme to 24 months after Angela Merkel indicated she welcomed the proposal to let the kurzarbeit programme run on until 2021.

The chancellor’s spokesperson said on Monday she was “positively” inclined towards the suggestion to extend the scheme, which allows firms to put their staff on part-time work to reduce their cost. Britain’s furlough scheme initially only allowed staff to be sent home and not work but staff have been allowed to work part-time since July.

A final decision on an extension, which it is estimated will cost €10bn (£9bn), is expected on 25 August.

The finance minister, Olaf Scholz, first proposed extending the benefit programme, which is currently limited to claims lasting a maximum of 12 months, on Sunday. “The corona crisis won’t suddenly disappear in the next few weeks,” said Scholz, who was recently announced as the centre-left Social Democrats’ candidate for chancellor in next year’s elections.

Read the full report below;

Lebanese authorities today announced a new lockdown and an overnight curfew to rein in a spike in infections.

The new measures will come into effect on Friday and last just over two weeks, the interior ministry said, adding that they would not affect the clean-up and aid effort following the devastating August 4 Beirut port blast.

A curfew will be imposed from 6:00 pm (1500 GMT) to 6:00 am.

Malls will be closed and restaurants restricted to delivery, with curtailed operating hours. Social gatherings will also be banned.

The airport will operate normally and ministries will be staffed at half capacity, AFP reports.

Areas damaged by the massive explosion that hit Beirut on August 4 will also be exempt from the restrictions, as clean-up efforts continue across multiple neighbourhoods.

Montenegro will postpone the start of the school year by one month due to the the “uncertain” status of the coronavirus pandemic, the education ministry said today.

Countries across the Balkans have been debating how to safely resume classes after a summer of rising infections.

“A regular start date carries risks for children’s health,” the education ministry said, announcing that the first day of school would be moved from September 1 to October 1, AFP reports.

In neighbouring Serbia, which has been much harder hit by the virus, the government recently decided to let parents of students in the first four grades choose whether to send their children to school or continue online in the fall.

As elsewhere in the region, classes in Montenegro went online after the pandemic started to hit in March.

The country brought a small number of infections down to zero for a period in May, but cases have started to rise again in the summer, now reaching some 4,000 for a population of just 620,000 people.

With the Adriatic country’s crucial tourism sector hit hard, authorities have tried to ease the economic fallout by recently reopening the borders to tourists from neighbouring Balkan states and to Russia, one of the top markets.

An hour after South Africa’s ban on the sale of alcohol was officially lifted on Tuesday at 9am, Sello Ditabe was pushing a trolly full of a dozen bottles of gin and mixers out of a vast warehouse in Johannesburg, where aisles were stacked 15 cases high with spirits and beer, Jason Burke reports from Johannesburg.

“I am very relieved. My brother is getting married next week and we were all very worried,” Ditabe, 31, said.

Across the country enthusiastic customers thronged alcohol stores and shops selling cigarettes, which could also be sold once more.

On the other side of Johannesburg, Sanizo Mabaso, a delivery driver, was also having a busy morning. In one hand, he held a bottle of Moët & Chandon champagne and in the other, two bottles of a potent fruit-flavoured aperitif, a customer’s order. “It’s going to be a long, hard day,” he said. It was not yet mid-morning but he and the other drivers for the local delivery service where he worked already had 300 orders.

Despite one of the strictest lockdowns in the world, South Africa has been badly hit by the Covid-19 pandemic, with almost 600,000 cases and a death toll believed to be much higher than the official figure of 12,000.

The sale and transport of alcohol and cigarettes was forbidden in late March, although the ban was briefly lifted in June.

You can read Jason’s full report below:

Namibia’s health minister has warned against the use of elephant dung, traditionally steamed and inhaled as a cure for the flu, to ward off coronavirus.

Infections doubled over the past month in the sparsely populated southern African country, with 4,464 cases and 37 deaths recorded to date.

Many Namibians have turned to natural remedies in the hope of protecting themselves against coronavirus, including the use of elephant dung.

The practice has not been scientifically tested.

“I am worried about unscrupulous people who would make other people spend money on useless remedies in the hope that they will be cured,” the country’s health minister, Kalumbi Shangula, told AFP on Tuesday, denouncing elephant dung sellers as “opportunistic”.

“A desperate person may do a desperate thing,” he added. “It is unethical. Do not spend money on useless remedies.”

Updated

In Karachi, Pakistan, people visited the beach after the government lifted most of the country’s remaining coronavirus restrictions.

South Africa to launch trial of US-developed vaccine

South Africa will launch clinical trials of a US-developed coronavirus vaccine with 2,900 volunteers this week, the second such study in the African country worst hit by the disease, lead investigator Shabir Madhi said on Tuesday.

Known as NVX-CoV2373, the vaccine was developed by US biotech company Novavax from the genetic sequence of SARS?CoV?2, the virus that causes the COVID-19 disease.

It will be administered to the first volunteer in the randomised, observer-blinded trial on Wednesday.

“It’s a two-dose schedule, and they get two either vaccines or placebos... spaced three weeks apart,” professor Madhi of the Johannesburg-based University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), told AFP.

With 589,886 cases and 11,982 deaths, South Africa is fifth in global rankings for countries with the most infections.

Updated

More on the WHO warning that young people are not invincible during the pandemic. You can watch video of WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove here:

Young people are not invincible to coronavirus, warns WHO – video https://t.co/U1N224Zq0v

— The Guardian (@guardian) August 18, 2020

Updated

The United Arab Emirates has experienced an “alarming” increase in the number of coronavirus cases over the past two weeks, its health minister has warned.

The UAE registered 365 new cases and two deaths in the last 24 hours, the government said, bringing the total number of Covid-19 infections in the Gulf state since the start of the pandemic to 64,906, with 366 deaths.

New daily coronavirus cases in the UAE peaked in mid-May but the country has had periodic spikes since then, despite a generally falling trend.

Updated

Coronavirus cases in the Americas have reached almost 11.5m with more than 400,000 deaths from the virus, according to the World Health Organization regional director Carissa Etienne.

Speaking in a virtual briefing from Washington with other Pan American Health Organization directors, Etienne said the region continued to carry the highest burden of the disease, accounting for 64% of officially reported deaths globally despite having 13% of the world’s population.

The biggest drivers of the case counts are the United States and Brazil, she said.

She also said stress about the pandemic was causing a mental health crisis in the region and increased use of drugs and alcohol.

Updated

A UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing has called for worldwide ban on evictions until the pandemic ends, warning the number of people being expelled from their homes was rising globally.

Balakrishnan Rajagopal warned of an impending “tsunami” of evictions, and stressed that “losing your home during this pandemic could mean losing your life”, AFP reports.

The independent expert, who is appointed by the UN but does not speak on its behalf, said: “The right to housing is central to any response to the pandemic. But now we are seeing an acceleration in evictions and home demolitions.”

Rajagopal said that while some governments have implemented temporary bans on forced evictions, many people are continuing to lose their homes.

He pointed for instance to Kenya where more than 8,000 people were forcibly ejected in a single day in May, and Brazil where more than 2,000 families have been evicted amid the pandemic.

But Rajagopal emphasised that the danger was global.

Temporary bans in many countries have ended or are coming to an end, and this raises serious concerns that a tsunami of evictions may follow.

Governments must not allow people to become homeless during this pandemic because they lose their job and cannot pay their rent or mortgage.

Forced evictions are an outrageous violation of human rights.”

Updated

Summary

  • The World Health Organization warns that the young are not invincible amid the coronavirus pandemic. “We are seeing young people who are ending up in ICU. Young people are dying from this virus,” the WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said on Tuesday.
  • The WHO wrote to every country on Tuesday urging them to quickly join its global shared vaccine programme and spelled out who would get its eventual coronavirus jabs first.
  • France is preparing to make face masks compulsory in the workplace, the government said on Tuesday as it moved to add open-plan work areas to a growing list of places where people have to cover up to curb the spread of coronavirus.
  • New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has told Donald Trump his remarks on her country’s coronavirus cases were “patently wrong”. Trump sparked uproar in NZ when he told a crowd in Minnesota that the Pacific country was in the grip of a “terrible” upsurge of Covid cases, having earlier succeeded in eliminating the disease.
  • In Australia the vast majority of the cases of Covid-19 in Victoria can be traced back to a family who were kept in hotel quarantine in Melbourne after returning to the country in mid-April, an inquiry has heard.
  • Prince Charles has said Australians are made of “tough stuff” in a recorded message of support for people facing a resurgence of coronavirus in Victoria. Charles said the second wave would have “heartbreaking consequences” for so many, but that the state would emerge stronger than ever.
  • The World Health Organization has warned that Covid-19 is now being spread mainly by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s, who may be unaware they are infected, potentially transmitting the disease to more vulnerable groups.
  • The Indian resort state of Goa is cracking down on revellers throwing illegal, drug-fuelled parties as coronavirus cases climb in the tourist hotspot, a government minister said on Tuesday.

Updated

Dozens of doctors in at least two of Kenya’s 47 counties have gone on strike over delayed salaries, inadequate personal protective equipment for handling Covid-19 patients and lack of medical insurance, Reuters reports.

Kenya has a total 30,636 confirmed infections, with 487 deaths, according to health ministry data.

Healthcare workers say they have not been given adequate PPE, but the government has said it has distributed enough to go round.

Doctors in western Homa Bay and central Embu had gone on strike over delayed or missing salary payments, lack of promotion, missing medical insurance and no hazard bonus, said Dr Allan Ochanji, vice-chair of the Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union.

“We have colleagues who have contracted Covid, they have been in isolation, they have had to foot the bills, despite the fact that they contracted Covid while on duty,” he said.

Doctors in Nairobi warned on Friday they would go on strike within a week if their demands were not met. The capital has by far the largest number of coronavirus cases in the Kenya.

Prof Richard Muga, Homa Bay county health executive, confirmed that health workers’ pay for July had been delayed owing to a dispute on how to allocate revenues to counties. He said the strike was illegal.

Updated

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, warned today there could be no further relaxation of restrictions while Germany grapples with a surge in new infections.

She urged Germans to follow the rules on hygiene precautions and reminded travellers returning from risk areas that quarantine was not an option “but a must” so long as they could not show a negative test.

Merkel told a press conference in Düsseldorf:

We are seeing that an increase in mobility and closer contacts are leading to a higher number of cases. I believe there can be no further loosening [of restrictions] at this point,” she said in her first public comments on the pandemic since returning from her summer break.

Germany was seen as an early success story in suppressing the virus but its progress has been undermined in recent weeks as numbers have crept up over the summer holidays, AFP reports.

Much of the rise has been blamed on returning holidaymakers as well as parties and family gatherings.

Germany has in recent weeks reported an average of well over 1,000 new cases a day, compared with about 350 in early June.

She told reporters:

This is a trend that cannot continue and must be halted. When I say we need to pull in the reins, I mean the rules need to be enforced very consistently.”

Germany earlier this month introduced free, mandatory tests for people returning from areas deemed a high risk for Covid-19 infections. People awaiting their results must stay in quarantine at home until the test comes back negative, Merkel said, warning that those who fail to comply faced fines.

She also welcomed tougher checks on compliance with hygiene precautions on buses and trains, such as mask-wearing and keeping a physical distance from others.

If we comply with all of this, the good news is that much of public life can carry on, everyone can do their bit.”

As of Tuesday, Germany has recorded a total of 225,404 coronavirus cases and 9,236 fatalities.

Updated

In Brazil, indigenous people have staged a protest in the state of Para amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The protesters blocked a main highway through the Brazilian Amazon demanding help against the virus and an end to illegal mining and deforestation.

Updated

The WHO wrote to every country on Tuesday urging them to quickly join its global shared vaccine programme and spelled out who would get its eventual coronavirus jabs first.

The World Health Organization’s director-general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said that without vaccinating the highest-risk populations around the world all at the same time, it would be impossible to rebuild the global economy, AFP reports.

He said the most exposed 20% of each country’s population – including frontline health workers, adults over 65 and those with pre-existing conditions – would be targeted in the first wave of vaccinations, once the WHO-spearheaded and shared facility can roll out a proven safe and effective vaccine.

“We have learned the hard way that the fastest way to end this pandemic and to reopen economies is to start by protecting the highest-risk populations everywhere, rather than the entire populations of just some countries,” Tedros told a virtual press conference.

Researchers and pharmaceutical giants around the world are racing to produce a vaccine, with nine of the 29 currently being tested on humans forming part of the shared Covax Global Vaccines Facility.

Some 92 countries are signed up to Covax – an effort to pool the costs and rewards of finding, producing and distributing effective vaccines – while a further 80 have expressed interest but are yet to come fully on board.

The WHO is looking for countries to signal a firm interest by 31 August.

“The Covax Global Vaccines Facility is the critical mechanism for joint procurement and pooling risk across multiple vaccines, which is why today I sent a letter to every member state encouraging them to join,” Tedros said.

He specified that the allocation of vaccines would be rolled out in two phases. In the first, doses would be allocated proportionally to all participating countries simultaneously, in order to reduce the overall global risk.

In the second phase, individual countries’ threat and vulnerability level will come into play.

“For most countries, a phase one allocation that builds up to 20% of the population would cover most of the at-risk groups,” said Tedros.

“If we don’t protect these highest risk people from the virus everywhere and at the same time, we can’t stabilise health systems and rebuild the global economy.”

Updated

Cases of type 1 diabetes among children in a small UK study almost doubled during the peak of Britain’s Covid-19 epidemic, suggesting a possible link between the two diseases that needs more investigation, scientists said on Tuesday.

While the study is based on only a handful of cases, it is the first to link Covid-19 and new-onset type 1 diabetes in children, and doctors should be on the lookout, the Imperial College London researchers said.

“Our analysis shows that during the peak of the pandemic the number of new cases of type 1 diabetes in children was unusually high in two of the hospitals [we studied] compared to previous years,” said Karen Logan, who co-led the study.

Study links COVID-19 to rise in childhood type 1 diabetes https://t.co/2br8ubxDbH pic.twitter.com/Wz6AMkiSmN

— Reuters (@Reuters) August 18, 2020

Updated

People should not be blamed for wanting to live normal lives but the message from the World Health Organization is that people, especially the young, are not invincible amid the pandemic, WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said on Tuesday.
“We are seeing young people who are ending up in ICU. Young people are dying from this virus,” she told a briefing in Geneva, referring to intensive care units.

France to make masks mandatory in workplaces

France is preparing to make face masks compulsory in the workplace, the government said on Tuesday as it moved to add open-plan work areas to a growing list of places where people have to cover up to curb the spread of coronavirus.

By the time people in France return to work after the August summer holidays, masks will be a “systematic” addition to indoor work spaces, including meeting rooms, corridors, change rooms and open-plan offices, the employment minister Élisabeth Borne told AFP.

Borne met labour and business representatives on Tuesday to discuss the new measure, which she said was based on the advice of the government’s public health council.

It took into account a growing scientific consensus that the coronavirus is transmitted not only in large drops projected when a person coughs or sneezes, but also in smaller ones that can remain suspended in air breathed out by infected people, she said.

France has already made mask-wearing obligatory on public transport and in enclosed shared public spaces such as shops and government offices, but has left their use in offices to the discretion of employers until now.

Updated

Countries led by women had “systematically and significantly better” Covid-19 outcomes, research appears to show, locking down earlier and suffering half as many deaths on average as those led by men.

The relative early success of leaders such as Germany’s Angela Merkel, New Zealand’s Jacinda Ardern, Denmark’s Mette Frederiksen, Taiwan’s Tsai Ing-wen and Finland’s Sanna Marin has so far attracted many headlines but little academic attention.

The analysis of 194 countries, published by the Centre for Economic Policy Research and the World Economic Forum, suggests the difference is real and “may be explained by the proactive and coordinated policy responses” adopted by female leaders.

Even after clear and frequently cited outliers such as New Zealand and Germany – and the US for male leaders – were removed from the statistics, the study found, the case for the relative success of female leaders was only strengthened.

“Our results clearly indicate that women leaders reacted more quickly and decisively in the face of potential fatalities,” said Dr Supriya Garikipati, a developmental economist at Liverpool University and co-author with Reading University’s Prof Uma Kambhampati.

“In almost all cases, they locked down earlier than male leaders in similar circumstances. While this may have longer-term economic implications, it has certainly helped these countries to save lives, as evidenced by the significantly lower number of deaths in these countries.”

Read the full report below:

Updated

Goa cracking down on illegal parties as coronavirus cases rise

The Indian resort state of Goa is cracking down on revellers throwing illegal, drug-fuelled parties as coronavirus cases climb in the tourist hotspot, a government minister said on Tuesday.

The coastal region has long been a magnet for backpackers and other travellers drawn to its scenic beaches and easygoing vibe, but the pandemic has meant that large get-togethers are now banned.

Lots of bars and restaurants are also unable to operate after many workers fled the state for their home villages when India imposed a strict lockdown in late March.

The partying has not stopped, however - including in private villas, stone quarries and at secret locations in the jungle involving thousands of dollars’ worth of drugs, according to local media.

Goa’s Tourism Minister Manohar Azgaonkar warned revellers on Tuesday that the good times are over.

“These parties are happening illegally... police are looking into it”, he told AFP.

“We are asking people to be vigilant and if they come to know about any such case, they should inform the police,” he added.

“There are guest houses and villas that are operating illegally,” he said, accusing owners of renting out their homes to visitors without informing the authorities.

In a recent case, police busted an underground rave at a private villa on Saturday, seizing drugs worth 900,000 rupees ($12,000) and arresting 23 people, including foreign nationals, according to a report in the Hindustan Times newspaper.

Foreign tourists cannot travel to India but Goa is home to a substantial number of foreign residents including many Russians, Israelis and Britons.

Earlier this month an all-night rave fuelled by alcohol and drugs descended into a brawl with knives and bottles, while last month a Russian hotel owner was reportedly arrested for throwing a large party.

Goa, home to around 1.8 million people, has registered nearly 12,000 coronavirus cases so far, with the vast majority of infections recorded over the past month.

Updated

Summary

  • New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has told Donald Trump his remarks on her country’s coronavirus cases were “patently wrong”. Trump sparked uproar in NZ when he told a crowd in Minnesota that the Pacific country was in the grip of a “terrible” upsurge of Covid cases, having earlier succeeded in eliminating the disease.
  • India has carried out nearly 900,000 coronavirus tests in a single day, a record for the country. The health ministry said 899,000 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to Tuesday.
  • In Australia the vast majority of the cases of Covid-19 in Victoria can be traced back to a family who were kept in hotel quarantine in Melbourne after returning to the country in mid-April, an inquiry has heard.
  • Prince Charles has said Australians are made of “tough stuff” in a recorded message of support for people facing a resurgence of coronavirus in Victoria. Charles said the second wave would have “heartbreaking consequences” for so many, but that the state would emerge stronger than ever.
  • The World Health Organization has warned that Covid-19 is now being spread mainly by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who may be unaware they are infected, potentially transmitting the disease to more vulnerable groups.
  • More than 400 coronavirus cases have been identified in relation to a church in northern Seoul as of Tuesday, the news agency Yonhap reported. The Sarang Jeil cluster is now believed to be South Korea’s second biggest after the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the city of Daegu was identified in February, where 5,214 were infected.
  • Lebanon’s health minister has warned that hospitals are reaching maximum capacity to treat coronavirus patients after the deadly Beirut blast either damaged or overwhelmed clinics and triggered a jump in Covid cases.
  • Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, has said the city is “still in a very severe situation as far as the Covid-19 epidemic is concerned”, unveiling a third round of pandemic stimulus funding. Strict social distancing measures were extended for at least another week.
  • Malta will close its bars and nightclubs once again after a surge in coronavirus cases. On Monday, Italy closed nightclubs for three weeks owing to a surge in cases.
  • China reported 22 new cases on Tuesday, the same as a day earlier, the health authority said. All were imported cases, making it the second straight day for zero new locally transmitted cases. There were no new deaths.

Updated

Médecins sans Frontières has published a damning report about conditions in Spain’s 486 care homes where an estimated 19,000 elderly people have died of coronavirus. The report criticises the lack of institutional coordination and leadership as well as the failure of the health system to provide assistance.

MSF says that “keeping infected people in enclosed spaces without medical attention multiplied infections, accelerated mortality and created inhuman and degrading situations”. The NGO added that “to a large degree the problems were linked to structural shortcomings, precarious working conditions and spending cuts”.

The report quotes a care home employee who said: “One day a palliative care team arrived and they gave the first injection of sedative to one of the residents who was very ill and who we would have referred to hospital. They left us some more injections and told us when to administer them. I knew I couldn’t do it, not that I couldn’t give the injection but because of what it meant. No one had prepared me for a situation like this. I never gave the injections.”

She added that one of the patients she was supposed to inject had since recovered and was still in the home, but there were other cases of residents who were sedated so that they didn’t suffer. “I’ll never get over the fact that they made it our responsibility,” she said.

A fireman who was disinfecting care homes told MSF that management, in a desperate attempt to control the spread of infections, shut elderly patients in their rooms, even though they had no symptoms.

“It was atrocious, a succession of closed doors, some locked, with people banging on them and begging to be let out. Horrific,” he said.

Magdalena, a nurse in a small rural care home, told MSF: “I’ve spent two days working back-to-back shifts because there’s no one else to look after the residents whom the hospital won’t take. I can’t take any more. One died yesterday and another will die tonight if I don’t stay, but I need a break if I’m going to manage all this. Half the team are off sick and the residents’ relatives phone constantly.”

Spain continues to record around 5,000 new infections a day, around two thirds of whom are asymptomatic, but the death rate remains low. The average age of the new cases is around 36. Madrid is the worst affected area and the city has now banned eating on public transport, along with other measures. Barcelona has extended restrictive measures introduced two weeks ago until the end of the month.

“The numbers aren’t good,” said Fernando Simón, the head of medical emergencies in Madrid. “We’re not doing too badly but things aren’t going the way we would have hoped.”

Fewer than half the 1,000 residents of Carabanchel in Madrid showed up for free PCR tests after being notified by mobile. The tests are not obligatory.

Updated

The number of adults in Great Britain experiencing depression has doubled during the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

Almost one in five (19.2%) of the 3,500 participants in the survey experienced depression in June, almost double the 9.7% of the group who had symptoms of depression in the nine months to March.

Younger adults, women and disabled people were among those most likely to experience depression during the pandemic, as were those living in households unable to afford an unexpected expense.

One in eight adults (13%) developed moderate to severe depressive symptoms during the pandemic, while a further 6.2% continued to experience this level of depressive symptoms from previously. A much smaller proportion, 3.5%, experienced an improvement in the same period.

Those living in households unable to afford an unexpected expense (defined as an “unexpected but necessary expense of £850”) were also considerably more likely to have been depressed in June (34.9%) , up from 21.1% before the pandemic reached the UK.

Although people across all age brackets were more likely to have experienced depression post-Covid, the greatest proportional increase was among those aged 16 to 39. Between July 2019 and March 2020, 11% of this age group reported experiencing depression, but this rose to 31% in June.

Read the full report below:

The sale of some commonly used medicines will be restricted in Finland in order to ensure enough availability during the next predicted coronavirus wave, the health ministry announced on Tuesday.

Users of paracetamol and of the anti-inflammatory drug dexamethasone will only be allowed to buy up to three months’ supply in one go under special measures to be introduced immediately and that will continue until January next year, AFP reports.

The limits aim to “prepare for a possible increase in the global demand” if cases spike over the autumn and winter, the health ministry said.

Updated

Luxembourg offers free coronavirus test to all returning holidaymakers

Luxembourg has begun offering a free coronavirus test to all returning holidaymakers as it continues an aggressive mass-testing programme that its government says has led to the country being unfairly penalised by fellow EU member states,

According to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the Grand Duchy has Europe’s highest 14-day cumulative number of new infections per 100,000 inhabitants at 120.1, ahead of Spain with 115.7.

That headline figure masks what is also by far Europe’s most ambitious testing scheme: according to the scientific online publication Our World in Data, Luxembourg has carried out more than 727 Covid-19 tests per 1,000 inhabitants.

On the latest available data, that also places the country, which has a population of about 625,000 people, at the top of the world rankings, ahead of the United Arab Emirates (582 tests per 1,000 inhabitants), Bahrain (555), Malta (313) and Denmark (310).

But the success of the scheme, which parliament recently voted to extend and expand to 53,000 tests a week, has revealed an infection rate that has prompted several European countries, including Germany and the UK, to place it on a travel blacklist.

While new daily infections are falling after a post-lockdown peak of more than 100 in late July, Luxembourg, which has recorded a total of 7,469 Covid-19 cases and 124 deaths, is still considered a high risk by a dozen EU countries.

Read the full report below:

Updated

Prince Charles sends message of support to Victoria

Prince Charles has said Australians are made of “tough stuff” in a recorded message of support for people facing a resurgence of coronavirus in Victoria.
Charles said the second wave would have “heartbreaking consequences” for so many, but that the state would emerge stronger than ever.

Melbourne, the state’s capital, has been in lockdown for more than a month, with strict measures now in place, including a night-time curfew.
Victoria still has more than 7,000 active Covid-19 cases and remains Australia’s worst concern.

The prince said:

I just wanted to say, on behalf of my wife and myself, that you are so much in our special thoughts at what I can well imagine is a tremendously testing and frustrating time, and that we care deeply for what you are having to go through. I’ve always felt a special fondness for Victoria, having spent six very happy months there at school 54 years ago and having had a chance to explore various parts of the state. From being able to live among you, and then to have the good fortune to revisit your marvellous state on many occasions, I know that Victorians, like all Australians, are tenacious, and resilient, or indeed, as you might say in Australia, made of tough stuff.”

He praised their “seemingly unceasing capacity for good humour in the face of great hardship” but added: “This capacity has been solely tested this year.” Describing it as a tremendously difficult time for Australia after the bushfires and then the Covid-19 outbreak, the prince added:

I can only imagine just how incredibly hard it must be for you all that, having had such early success in combating the virus, you now find yourselves in the midst of this second wave with all its heartbreaking consequences for so many people’s lives, livelihoods and businesses. Having experienced this dreadful coronavirus myself, my heart goes out to all those currently battling the disease, those caring for them either at home or in your first-class healthcare system, and those who have so tragically lost their loved ones.”

Charles, 71, recovered after suffering a mild form of the virus in March and has described how he lost his sense of taste and smell.
He added in the video message:

All I can say, however inadequate this may seem under such unprecedented circumstances, is that these difficult, often soul-destroying days will surely pass. And we have no doubt that Victoria will emerge stronger than ever.”

His Royal Highness The Prince of Wales has recorded a message to the people of Victoria in light of the current public health situation. Watch the message on our website:https://t.co/4RLNZCpmRE

— Governor of Victoria (@VicGovernor) August 18, 2020

Updated

A hotel security guard in Sydney has contracted Covid-19 from a quarantined traveller. Infection-control experts say that as long as the virus rages overseas, “hotel quarantine will remain a source of risk of further outbreaks”, Naaman Zhou reports.

It has been suggested that security guards should now be replaced at hotels by trained nurses.

The New South Wales chief health officer, Dr Kerry Chant, announced on Tuesday that a guard who worked at the Sydney Harbour Marriott hotel in Circular Quay had “most likely” contracted the virus from a traveller from the US, and subsequently worked at a court building, a market and a shopping centre in western Sydney while infectious.

Chant said genomic sequencing showed the strain of the virus the guard had acquired matched the traveller in quarantine. It was different from the clusters in Sydney, including the Crossroads hotel, which have been linked to Melbourne’s second wave.

Read the full report below:

Updated

South Africa, which has had one of the world’s strictest lockdowns for five months, relaxed its restrictions today to permit the sale of alcohol and cigarettes, and the return of other aspects of more ordinary life in response to decreasing numbers of new cases and hospitalisations for Covid-19.

The country has loosened its regulations to permit the opening of bars, restaurants, gyms, and places of worship, all limited to no more than 50 people. Schools will reopen gradually from 24 August, starting with grades 12 and 7 and a phased opening of other grades.


With more than 589,000 confirmed cases, South Africa has more than half of all reported cases in Africa. The 54 countries of the continent reported a total of more than 1.1m cases on Tuesday, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, the Associated Press reports.

South Africa has recorded more than 11,900 Covid-19 deaths, while overall the continent has reported just over 25,800 deaths. The actual numbers of cases and deaths are believed to be much higher, say health experts.
South Africa’s new confirmed cases have dropped from an average of 12,000 a day at the peak in July to fewer than 5,000 a day as of last week.

Updated

Hi. Caroline Davies here. I am taking over the live blog for the next few hours. You can get in touch on caroline.davies@theguardian.com

Infection being spread by 'unaware' younger people, WHO warns

The World Health Organization has warned that Covid-19 is now being spread mainly by people in their 20s, 30s and 40s who may be unaware they are infected, potentially transmitting the disease to more vulnerable groups.

In a virtual briefing, the WHO’s western Pacific regional director, Dr Takeshi Kasai, said:

The epidemic is changing … People in their 20s, 30s and 40s are increasingly driving the spread. Many are unaware they are infected. This increases the risk of spillovers to the more vulnerable.

Surges have been reported in countries that appeared to have the virus under control, including Vietnam, which until recently went three months without domestic transmission due to its aggressive mitigation efforts, Reuters reported.

“What we are observing is not simply a resurgence. We believe it’s a signal that we have entered a new phase of pandemic in the Asia-Pacific,” Kasai said.

Updated

Indonesia has reported 1,673 new coronavirus infections, bringing the total number of cases in the south-east Asian nation to 143,043, data from the country’s health ministry showed. The data recorded an additional 70 deaths, taking the total to 6,277.

Updated

These look like scenes of yesteryear but thousands of people packed out a water park in Wuhan, China, over the weekend as much of the rest of the world remained under lockdown restrictions.

VIDEO: 🇨🇳 Crowds packed out a water park over the weekend in the central Chinese city of #Wuhan, where the #coronavirus first emerged late last year, keen to party as the city edges back to normal life pic.twitter.com/SJFBmx5sU8

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 17, 2020

Philippines records more than 3,000 new cases seventh day in a row

The Philippines’ health ministry confirmed 4,836 novel coronavirus infections, the seventh consecutive day of reporting more than 3,000 daily cases, Reuters reports.

In a bulletin, the ministry said total confirmed cases had increased to 169,213, while there were seven additional deaths – bringing the total toll to 2,687.

The Filipino president, Rodrigo Duterte, on Monday eased the strict coronavirus lockdown in the capital, Manila, and nearby provinces to reopen the economy and help struggling businesses, despite the country having the highest number of infections in south-east Asia.

Updated

Russia has reported 4,748 new coronavirus cases, Reuters reports, continuing its steady downward trend. Its nationwide tally stands at 932,493, the fourth largest in the world.

Russia’s coronavirus crisis response centre said 132 people had died of the disease in the last 24 hours, bringing the country’s official coronavirus death toll to 15,872.

Updated

Russia’s energy minister, Alexander Novak, has tested positive for the coronavirus, state media has quote the Russian prime minister as saying.

“Unfortunately, Alexander Valentinovich Novak has been taken ill with the coronavirus,” Mikhail Mishustin told a government meeting in Blagoveshchensk, in Russia’s far east, the Interfax news agency said.

It said several journalists accompanying on the far-east tour, which began last week, have also tested positive for coronavirus and have been forced to return to Moscow.

Several Russian political figures have been infected with the virus in recent months, including the Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, and some ministers and lawmakers.

Updated

Finland’s Prime Minister Sanna Marin said on Tuesday she would take a COVID-19 test due to mild symptoms of an infection.

“I have mild respiratory symptoms. I will take a corona test and work remotely,” Marin said on Twitter.

Minulla on lieviä hengitystieoireita. Käyn koronatestissä ja siirryn etätöihin. Tänään siis etänä eduskuntaryhmän kesäkokous ja hallituksen neuvottelut.

— Sanna Marin (@MarinSanna) August 18, 2020

Last week, Finland recommended the use of face masks in public for the first time as the number of coronavirus cases rises.

Earthquake strikes central Philippines

A magnitude 6.6 earthquake has struck central Philippines, killing at least one person and damaging roads and buildings including a hospital and a sports complex being used as a novel coronavirus quarantine centre.

It was the strongest earthquake in eight months in the Philippines, Reuters reports. It struck the central town of Cataingan, which has a population of more than 50,000 people and is near the epicentre

The Philippines, which has a population of 107 million, has the most coronavirus cases in Southeast Asia with more than 164,000 confirmed infections and 2,681 deaths

Australia has recorded its lowest one-day rise in new Covid-19 infections in a month, Reuters reports, boosting hopes that a stringent lockdown in the country’s second-most populous state has prevented a fresh wave of cases nationally.

Led by cases in Victoria state - the epicentre of Australia’s latest COVID-19 outbreak - Australia said it has detected 226 new infections in the past 24 hours, the lowest since July 18 when 212 cases were recorded.

The national figure is well below the more than 700 infections detected in a single day earlier this month, almost all of which were in Victoria.

“We have seen numbers going up and down recently, but by and large what we are seeing is a continuing downward trend,” Australia’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Michael Kidd told reporters in Canberra.

Older and vulnerable people in Ireland are to be told to limit their time outdoors and indoor gatherings limited to six people, the Irish Independent is reporting.

The paper reports that Ireland’s National Public Health Emergency Team believes more curbs must be introduced to control a resurgence of Covid-19 just two weeks before schools are due to reopen.

Ireland’s cabinet is due to meet later on Tuesday to consider the recommendations, which include a restriction on outdoor gatherings to 15 people, the paper added.

Restrictions in the country are already among the strictest in Europe and currently limit outdoor gatherings to 50 people, while 10 visitors from no more than four different households are allowed in the homes of anyone else, so as to limit house parties.

The number of daily confirmed cases in Ireland has been rising steadily since the end of July, from around 20-30 per day to 66 on Monday. The country’s infection rate now stands at 22.3 cases per 100,000 people, above the important benchmark of 20 in which the UK will consider introducing quarantine measures on all arriving travellers.

A security guard at a New Zealand managed isolation facility for travellers returning to the country has posted extensive private information about quarantined travellers to a group on the social media platform Snapchat, officials have said.

The list included the names, room numbers and arrival and departure dates of 27 quarantined travellers staying at the Sheraton Four Points facility in Auckland, along with the names and room numbers of five staff members, said a statement from Megan Main, one of the officials responsible for the isolation facilities.

The image was posted to a private group on Snapchat by the guard on Saturday morning and removed at about noon when the breach was identified and traced, the statement said. The guard, from the firm First Security, had legitimate access to the information - but officials apologised for the breach.

It’s another blow for a government trying to correct failures in the country’s managed isolation system; Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, has revealed that she thought all border workers were being tested for Covid-19, when less than 40% actually were.
The country is experiencing a resurgence in community transmission of the virus -- with 90 active cases in New Zealand, and one cluster of cases in Auckland -- after weeks without any domestic spread.

India’s interior minister Amit Shah has been hospitalised again after complaining of fatigue and body ache, four days after he said he had recovered from Covid-19, Reuters reports.

Shah, a close aide of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the virtual number-two in his cabinet, was admitted to the government-run All India Institute for Medical Sciences in the capital New Delhi, the hospital said in a statement.

“He is comfortable and continuing his work from the hospital,” it said, adding he had tested negative for Covid-19.

India has reported the world’s third-largest number of coronavirus infections after the United States and Brazil, with cases topping 50,000 every day since July 30. India’s cases jumped by 55,079 on Tuesday, taking the total to 2.7 million, while deaths rose by 876 to a total of 51,797.

That’s it for me for now. I’m handing you over to my colleague in the UK, Josh Halliday.

Summary

  • New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern has told Donald Trump his remarks on her country’s coronavirus cases were “patently wrong”. Trump sparked uproar in NZ when he told a crowd in Minnesota that the Pacific country was in the grip of a “terrible” upsurge of Covid cases, having earlier succeeded in eliminating the disease. “Big surge in New Zealand, you know it’s terrible. We don’t want that,” Trump said. On Tuesday NZ recorded 13 new cases. Ardern said there was no comparison between New Zealand’s handful of new cases a day and the “tens of thousands” reported in the United States.
  • India has carried out nearly 900,000 coronavirus tests in a single day, a record for the country. The health ministry said 899,000 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to Tuesday. Only the US has ever carried out more daily tests, conducting 926,876, on 24 July. India’s tests returned 55,079 cases positive cases, taking its total tally to more than 2.7 million – behind only the US and Brazil. The daily death toll of 876, took total fatalities in the country to 51,797.
  • In Australia the vast majority of the cases of Covid-19 in Victoria can be traced back to a single family that returned to Australia in mid-May who were kept in hotel quarantine at the Rydges Hotel in Melbourne, an inquiry has heard. Dr Charles Alpren, an epidemiologist with the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, said over 90% of cases since the end of May could be linked to the one outbreak at the Rydges Hotel.
  • Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he would be among the first to receive a Russian coronavirus vaccine if it is shown to be effective. “I would be the first to get vaccinated, because it matters a lot to me, but we have to ... ensure that it’s something effective and that it’s available to everyone,” Lopez Obrador said.
  • More than 400 coronavirus cases have been identified in relation to a church in northern Seoul as of Tuesday, the news agency Yonhap reported. The Sarang Jeil cluster is now believed to be South Korea’s second biggest after the Shincheonji Church of Jesus in the city of Daegu was identified in February, where 5,214 were infected. It prompted the country’s first major lockdown of the pandemic.
  • Lebanon’s health minister has warned that hospitals are reaching maximum capacity to treat coronavirus patients after the deadly Beirut blast either damaged or overwhelmed clinics and triggered a spike in Covid cases. “Public and private hospitals in the capital in particular have a very limited capacity, whether in terms of beds in intensive care units or respirators,” the minister, Hamad Hassan, told a press conference.
  • Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, said the city was “still in a very severe situation as far as the Covid-19 epidemic is concerned” as she unveiled a third round of pandemic stimulus funding. Strict social distancing measures currently in place were extended for at least another week.
  • Malta will close its bars and nightclubs once again after a surge in coronavirus cases. On Monday, Italy closed nightclubs for three weeks due to a surge in cases.
  • China reported 22 new cases on Tuesday, the same as a day earlier, the health authority said. All were imported cases, making it the second straight day for zero new locally transmitted cases. There were no new deaths.

Updated

India carries out record number of daily tests

India has carried out nearly 900,000 coronavirus tests in a single day, a record for the country, as it fights a surge of Covid-19 cases. It comes as the South Korean cluster linked to church in northern Seoul grew to 400 cases.

India’s health ministry said a record 899,000 tests were conducted in the 24 hours to Tuesday. Only the US has ever carried out more daily tests, conducting 926,876, on 24 July.

India’s tests returned 55,079 cases positive cases, taking its total tally to more than 2.7 million – behind only the US and Brazil. The daily death toll of 876, took total fatalities in the country to 51,797.

The ministry said that even with such a high rate of testing, “the positivity has remained low”, currently 8.81% compared with the weekly national average of 8.84%. The US has a 9% test positivity rate, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

You can get up to speed on this and on all the day’s other top stories in our global report below:

Los Angeles schools to test all 600,000 students

In the most ambitious plan of its kind, Los Angeles Unified has announced plans to test its roughly 600,000 students and 75,000 employees as the nation’s second-largest school district prepares for the eventual return to in-person instruction.

The superintendent of Los Angeles Unified, Austin Beutner, said in a statement the program will provide regular Covid testing and contact tracing for school staff, students and families.

“Extraordinary circumstances call for extraordinary actions, and while this testing and contact tracing effort is unprecedented, it is necessary and appropriate,” Beutner said.

The testing program is set to kick off Monday, with additional services to roll out as the school year continues. Over time, testing will be available to all children and staff members in the sprawling school district that has more than 600,000 students. The district said services will also be offered to family members of students and staff who test positive for Covid-19.

Los Angeles county is the worst affected in the country, with more than 220,000 cases.

You can read. the full story below:

Australia: 90% of cases in Victoria since end May traced back to single outbreak in hotel quarantine

In Australia the vast majority of the cases of Covid-19 in Victoria can be traced back to a single family that returned to Australia in mid-May who were kept in hotel quarantine at the Rydges Hotel in Melbourne, an inquiry has heard.

Dr Charles Alpren, an epidemiologist with the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed to the hotel quarantine inquiry over 90% of cases since the end of May could be linked to the one outbreak at the Rydges Hotel, while almost all of the other cases could be linked to an outbreak at the Stamford Plaza Hotel.

The family of four returned to Australia on 9 May, and all four were symptomatic and were diagnosed with Covid-19 on 15 May. On that date they were moved to the Rydges Hotel on Swanston Street in Melbourne.

Then on 25 May, three staff working at the hotel tested positive for Covid-19. From there, the number of cases linked to the outbreak grew to 17. Alpren said 14 of those 17 that were genomically sequenced were linked to the family.

Alpren said that based on the data obtained by the department from 3,234 of the over 12,000 cases in the past month, 3,183 are linked to the Rydges Hotel cluster.

You can read Josh Taylor’s full report below.

Updated

Jacinda Ardern tells Donald Trump he's 'patently wrong' on NZ's Covid cases

New Zealand, prime minister, Jacinda Ardern hit back on Tuesday against Donald Trump for saying her country is experiencing a “big surge” in Covid-19, calling the remarks “patently wrong”.

Trump sparked uproar in New Zealand when he told a crowd in Minnesota that the country of 5 million people was in the grip of a “terrible” upsurge in COVID-19 cases, having earlier succeeded in eliminating the disease.

Thirteen new infections were confirmed in New Zealand on Tuesday, taking the country’s total number of cases since the pandemic began to 1,293, with 22 deaths. This compares with the U.S. tally of more than 5.2 million cases and 170,000 deaths.

“Big surge in New Zealand, you know it’s terrible. We don’t want that,” Trump said.

Ardern said there was no comparison between New Zealand’s handful of new cases a day and the “tens of thousands” reported in the United States.

“I think anyone who’s following Covid and its transmission globally will quite easily see that New Zealand’s nine cases in a day does not compare to the United States’ tens of thousands, and in fact does not compare to most countries in the world,” she told reporters.

“Obviously it’s patently wrong,” she said of Trump’s comments.

“We are still one of the best-performing countries in the world when it comes to COVID ... our workers are focused on keeping it that way.”

New Zealand’s death rate per 100,000 people, at about 0.45 (according to Johns Hopkins data), is one of the lowest in the world thanks to strict lockdowns enforced early in the pandemic. The United States has a death rate of 51.98 per 100,000, one of the highest in the world.

Updated

Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador says he would be among the first to receive a Russian coronavirus vaccine if it is shown to be effective.

Russia’s announcement last week that it was the first in the world to approve a coronavirus vaccine was met with caution from Western scientists who said it still needed to be proved safe and effective.

“I would be the first to get vaccinated, because it matters a lot to me, but we have to ... ensure that it’s something effective and that it’s available to everyone,” Lopez Obrador said at his daily news conference.

The Mexican leader added that he would personally reach out to Russia or China if they are first to develop an effective vaccine.

“In this important matter, there should be no ideologies... health comes first,” he said.

The Latin American country has recorded more than 56,000 coronavirus deaths – the world’s third-highest toll – and over half a million infections.

Mexico announced a deal last week with British-Swedish pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca to manufacture its vaccine now under development if clinical trials show it to be effective.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 1,390 to 225,404, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Tuesday.

The reported death toll rose by four to 9,236, the tally showed.

Updated

South Korea: 400 cases now linked to church cluster

More than 400 coronavirus cases have been identified in relation to a church in northern Seoul as of Tuesday, the news agency Yonhap reports.

“After a member of Sarang Jeil Church first tested positive on 12 August, 123 more were identified on Monday, raising the number of cases to 438, which includes 282 in Seoul,” Park Yu-mi, the capital city government’s director of public health, told a press briefing.

There are fears that this growing outbreak could escalate, with nearly 1,000 cases identified in the past five days.

Yonhap says the Sarang Jeil cluster is now South Korea’s second biggest after the Shincheonji religious group, where 5,214 were infected. Most of the Shincheonji cases broke out in the southeastern city of Daegu.

Half of the Sarang Jeil’s 4,000 members has so far been tested, with 16% returning positive results, Yohnap says.

Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reports that the city has banned flights from India, due to rising Covid cases.

Hong Kong bans Air India from flying to city for two weeks over imported Covid-19 cases https://t.co/XSEQddZqZT

— SCMP News (@SCMPNews) August 18, 2020

Footage from the Agence France-Presse agency of crowds gathering in Wuhan – the centre of the pandemic outbreak in China – over the weekend. The images speak for itself.

VIDEO: 🇨🇳Crowds packed out a water park over the weekend in the central Chinese city of #Wuhan, where the #coronavirus first emerged late last year, keen to party as the city edges back to normal life pic.twitter.com/sIrvzSFdin

— AFP news agency (@AFP) August 18, 2020

Nigeria to resume international flights

Nigeria will resume international flights on 29 August as it eases restrictions over the novel coronavirus pandemic, the country’s aviation minister said Monday.

Africa’s most populous country shut its airspace in March to contain the spread of the virus that has so far infected 49,068 and claimed 975 lives.

“Glad to announce the resumption of international flights from August 29, 2020, beginning with Lagos and Abuja as we did with the domestic flight resumption,” Hadi Sirika said on Twitter, referring to the nation’s commercial hub and its administrative capital.

“Protocols and procedures will be announced in due course,” he said, adding that the country’s other international airports would follow suit.

The decision came barely six weeks after the West African economic powerhouse resumed domestic flights.

Hong Kong’s chief executive, Carrie Lam, says the city is still in a very severe situation as far as the Covid-19 epidemic is concerned” as she unveiled a third round of pandemic stimulus funding. It comes as the strict social distancing measures currently in place were extended for at least another week, and authorities said the economic situation was dire.

Lam said:

There are several indicators that don’t give us a sense of comfort that this is time to relax social distancing measures. We are not in a downward trend yet… [The numbers] are still fluctuating from one day to another day … and we are seeing some worrying clusters emerging ...Our testing has not been as comprehensive or speedy as we’d like to see. With these factors it’s simply not possible to do significant relaxation.

Until an effective vaccine is discovered, produced, and widely supplied, we’ll probably have to live with this virus for a pretty long time under this new normal set of circumstances.

Her comments come amid a continuing third wave of the virus in the city - its worst since the pandemic began. After a long run of cases in the triple figures, the daily case rates are beginning to drop, and Monday reported 44 new cases.

As has occurred in other countries, like Singapore, the region which had previously had great success in containing the virus has seen a resurgence off the back of apparent complacency or mass exemptions to quarantine and other measures – particularly around cohorts of lower paid workers.

Lam told media a short time ago there were two clusters still of concern. One was at the shipping container terminal where there were about 60 active cases, Lam said.

“Our response is to carry out tests as soon as possible … and cut the transmission chain. But so far we have not done enough in terms of testing,” she said. Health authorities had handed out specimen bottles among the 7000-odd employees but only a little more than 1,000 had been returned so far.

The other cluster of concern centres around foreign domestic workers who are living in temporary boarding houses accommodation while they are in between jobs. As many as 6,000 people have moved in and out of the accommodation as they waited for the immigration department to approve their new live-in jobs.

“We have sent specimen bottles hoping they’d take the test but as of last night only about 900 bottles have been returned to us,” said Lam.

Updated

Russia's Mariinsky ballet hit by coronavirus

The world-famous Mariinsky ballet company has called off performances after some 30 members, mostly dancers, contracted the coronavirus, St Petersburg health authorities said on Monday.

Three have been hospitalised while the others are following treatments at home, Irina Chinjeria of the city’s health authority said, quoted by the Interfax news agency.

Nearly 300 other dancers have been told to confine themselves to home as a precaution.

Performances scheduled for last week were called off and only operas will be staged for the rest of August.

As of Monday, Russia had recorded 927,745 cases of Covid-19, and 15,740 deaths, according to official figures.

China reports 22 Covid cases

China has reported 22 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday, same as the tally a day earlier, the health authority said.

All of the new infections were imported cases, the National Health Commission said in a statement, making it the second straight day for zero new locally transmitted cases. There were no new deaths.

China also reported 17 new asymptomatic patients, compared with 37 a day earlier.
As of August 17, mainland China had a total of 84,871 confirmed coronavirus cases, it said. China’s death toll from the coronavirus remained unchanged at 4,634.

Victoria’s premier, Daniel Andrews, has begun speaking. He confirms 222 new cases today and 17 deaths. Thirteen of the 17 are related to aged care.

He asks people to get tested as soon as symptoms become apparent.

What we are all trying to avoid here is that case numbers come down to the point where we start to think about opening up ... only to be unable to do that because the test numbers are too low for us to have clarity about just how much virus is out there.

You can follow all our coverage of this story on our Australian live blog below:

Updated

We are expecting another news conference shortly, this time from the Australian premier of the state of Victoria, Daniel Andrews, which has been fighting a major outbreak of coronavirus.

We know that today there have been 222 cases recorded in the state – the lowest number for a month – and 17 deaths. The seven-day average of cases is now down to 307.

We’ll bring you news from that press conference as soon as it starts.

Updated

One NZ case believed to be linked to returned traveller from US

One of the cases in New Zealand is a maintenance worker at the Rydges hotel in Auckland, which is a managed isolation facility. He tested positive on 16 August. Bloomfield said the man performed maintenance on hotel rooms between bookings, after the rooms had been cleaned.

“The genome sequencing indicates his case is not linked to the current outbreak in the community but is most closely linked to a positive case that was in the Rydges and identified was on 31st of July. This is a returnee from the USA,” Bloomfield said.

Further genome testing is being carried out on these cases today.

Updated

New Zealand reports 13 new cases, 12 linked to Auckland cluster

New Zealand’s top health official, Ashley Bloomfield has begun his daily update.

There are 13 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand, 12 of them linked to a community outbreak in the largest city, Auckland. One is under investigation but is believed to be linked to the cluster.

The city is under strict lockdown rules after a domestic outbreak of the coronavirus. New Zealand had recorded weeks without community transmission – with all cases reported and quarantined in returning travellers at the border – and it’s still unknown how the new cluster began.

There are now 69 people in the new cluster, said Bloomfield, and a total of 90 active cases in the country.

There have been 1,293 confirmed cases of the coronavirus in New Zealand, with 22 deaths.

Updated

Two instances of Covid-19 in New Zealand’s renewed outbreak that had been labelled as “mystery cases” – not obviously connected to the single community cluster in Auckland – have now been traced to their source, health officials say.

Auckland, New Zealand’s largest city, is under strict lockdown provisions after a community outbreak of the coronavirus.

New Zealand had recorded weeks without community transmission, and it’s still unknown how the new cluster began.

One of the two mystery cases has now been traced back to that cluster through genome sequencing, health officials said in a news release on Tuesday.

In the other case, the man diagnosed with Covid-19 is a maintenance worker at one of the quarantine hotels used to isolate returning travelers to New Zealand. Genome sequencing shows he has contracted the same strain of the virus as a returning traveler from the US who stayed at the same hotel where the man works.

However, the hotel worker has no routine contact with guests and didn’t have any contact with the infected traveler – so officials don’t know how it passed between the two. The hotel worker attended two church services before he was diagnosed and his contacts are being traced.

UK: more than 70 test positive at dessert factory

More than 70 staff at a Nottinghamshire dessert factory have now tested positive for Covid-19.

It was announced on 7 August that all staff would be tested after 39 cases were detected, but that figure has risen to 72 after 701 employees at the Bakkavor site in Newark were tested. Testing will continue until Wednesday to enable all 1,600 employees to be included at an on-site testing station run by the NHS.

Bakkavor describes itself as the “leading provider of fresh prepared food in the UK” and supplies major grocery retailers in the country. According to Nottinghamshire county council, 33 of the positive cases have self-isolated and since returned to work “fully fit”.

Jonathan Gribbin, director of public health at Nottinghamshire county council, said: “Bakkavor have been very cooperative and we hope that the testing of their employees will allow us to find out more about where people are acquiring the infection.”

You can read our full story below:

We are expecting the usual flurry of press conferences in Australia and New Zealand to begin in about 10 minutes. We will do our best to bring you updates from all of them.

Four more regions of Spain come under new measures to curb a rise in Covid infections, a day after a noisy Madrid protest against virus restrictions.

Spain’s most populous region, Andalusia, along with Galicia and Cantabria in the north and Castilla and Leon in the centre become the latest Spanish regions to begin enforcing 11 measures the government unveiled Friday to curb one of the fastest virus growth rates in Europe.

In Mallorca and Ibiza, pool parties and party boats are set to be banned, as Spain’s Balearic islands grapple with a surge of coronavirus cases. Around two months after opening its doors to tourists, the region has gone from registering a handful of new cases each day to an average of 100 daily cases in the past two weeks.

Starting on Tuesday the region will implement the measures being rolled out across Spain, including shuttering restaurants and bars at 1am and banning smoking in public places when distancing isn’t possible, said regional leader Francina Armengol. But it would also go further in cracking down on activities such as party boats and pool parties across the region, she said.

“There are young people and people of all ages who are contracting the virus,” Armengol told reporters. “Everybody is at risk.”

Malta closes bars and night clubs

Malta will close its bars and night clubs once again after a surge in coronavirus cases in the Mediterranean island state. Health Minister Chris Fearne said Monday.

The measure, to take effect on Wednesday will also concern sports facilities and social clubs, the health minister, Chris Fearne, said.

Mass gatherings in public have been restricted to 15 people, while restaurants and shops have been allowed to remain open.

Health superintendent Charmaine Gauci said the new “more controlling” measures are aimed at ensuring social distancing.

Coronavirus cases have been rising steadily in Malta, seen some months ago as a European success story for its handling of the pandemic. It currently counts 607 active cases – almost double the peaks it saw in March and April. it has recorded 1,375 infections since March when the first case was detected. Nine people have died.

The surge, which began nearly a month ago, has been traced to a weekend-long party at a hotel and a traditional village religious feast.

On Monday, Italy closed night clubs for three weeks due to a surge in cases.

President Trump has singled out New Zealand as country which had coronavirus under control but has subsequently suffered a “big surge”.

The places they were using to hold up now they’re having a big surge … they were holding up names of countries and now they’re saying ‘whoops!,” he said at a campign rally in Mankato, Minnesota.

Do you see what’s happening in New Zealand? They beat it, they beat it, it was like front-page news because they wanted to show me something. Big surge in New Zealand, you know it’s terrible, we don’t want that, but this is an invisible enemy that should never have been let to come to Europe and the rest of the world by China.

"All of a sudden a lot of the places they were using to hold up, they are having a big surge ... New Zealand, you see what's going on in New Zealand" -- New Zealand had nine (9!) new Covid cases today. The US had more than 42,000.

The outbreaks are not comparable. pic.twitter.com/T8ugmKK6aa

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 17, 2020

On Monday Auckland recorded nine new cases of the virus, while the US recorded just under 42,000.

You can read our full story below:

Updated

Lebanon’s health minister warned Monday that hospitals are reaching maximum capacity to treat Covid-19. The country has seen a spike in coronavirus-related cases and deaths in recent weeks and its medical system has been under huge pressure since the massive blast that ripped through Beirut two weeks ago.

The World Health Organization on 12 August said more than half of 55 healthcare facilities evaluated by the agency were “non-functional”, three major hospitals were out of operation and another three were running at well below normal capacity.

“Public and private hospitals in the capital in particular have a very limited capacity, whether in terms of beds in intensive care units or respirators,” the minister, Hamad Hassan, told a press conference.

“We are on the brink, we don’t have the luxury to take our time,” he warned, urging authorities to take the “hard decision” to impose a new two-week lockdown to stem the spread of the virus.

The country reported a one-day record of 456 new infections on Monday, bringing the total number of infections to 9,337, including 105 deaths since the start of the outbreak in February.

A previously planned lockdown was scrapped in the wake of the explosion, which flattened neighbourhoods near the port and left thousands homeless.

“In the capital, the intensive care units and the departments set up for the coronavirus in public hospitals are full,” the minister told Voice of Lebanon radio.

“In most private hospitals that receive coronavirus patients, intensive care unit beds are (already) occupied” by Covid-19 patients, he added.

The minister said chaos in Beirut after the blast, Lebanon’s worst peacetime disaster, made it difficult to enforce compliance with pandemic precautionary and preventive measures.

“Our ability to control behaviour in the face of the virus is more limited,” the minister said.

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

Lebanon’s health minister has warned that hospitals are reaching maximum capacity to treat coronavirus patients after the deadly Beirut blast overwhelmed clinics and triggered a spike in Covid cases.

“Public and private hospitals in the capital in particular have a very limited capacity, whether in terms of beds in intensive care units or respirators,” the minister, Hamad Hassan, told a press conference.

“We are on the brink, we don’t have the luxury to take our time,” he warned, urging authorities to take the “hard decision” to impose a new two-week lockdown to stem the spread of the virus.

In other coronavirus developments:

  • Global cases of coronavirus are approaching 22 million, and deaths stand at nearly 780,000.
  • President Trump has highlighted New Zealand as a country the virus as re-emerged in a “big surge”. He said “they beat it, it was front page news ... the problem is ‘big surge’ in New Zealand,” he said. On Monday NZ recorded 9 new cases, taking the Aukland outbreak – the first community transmission in the country for more than 100 days – to a total of 58 cases.
  • Pool parties and party boats are set to be banned in Mallorca and Ibiza amid a surge of coronavirus cases. Two months are reopening to tourists, the Balearic islands will also implement the measures being rolled out across Spain, including shuttering restaurants and bars at 1am and banning smoking in public places when distancing isn’t possible.
  • 72 workers at a desserts factory in England tested positive for Covid-19. The local council worked with management staff at the factory, which employs 1,600 people, to ensure all employees can get tested in the coming days.
  • Malta will close its bars and night clubs once again after a surge in coronavirus cases. Coming into effect from Wednesday, the measures to ensure social distancing will also apply to sports facilities and social clubs, and mass gatherings have been restricted to 15 people. Restaurants and shops can remain open.
  • Nigeria will resume international flights on 29 August as it eases restrictions. This will begin with Lagos and Abuja, six weeks after the country resumed domestic flights.
  • Oman will allow the reopening of tourist and international restaurants, and gyms and swimming pools located in hotels. The changes, allowed only under certain regulations and requirements, will take effect from Tuesday.

Contributors

Lucy Campbell (now); Caroline Davies, Josh Halliday and Alison Rourke (earlier)

The GuardianTramp

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