Category Archives: Coronavirus

Coronavirus live: Greece cases rise sharply after weeks of declining numbers; new measures in Catalonia

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Greece reports 1,797 new daily cases more than twice the 801 cases reported on Monday; curbs on nightlife in Catalonia to reduce impact of virus on young

Heathrow, the Gaucho restaurant chain and the City Pub Group are set to continue with mask-wearing rules despite government plans to sweep away most safety measures from 19 July.

Related: Heathrow and some hospitality in England to retain masks after 19 July

Good evening, Harry Taylor bringing you the latest coronavirus updates from the UK and around the world for the rest of tonight.

If you have any comments, tips or suggestions – drop me an email to harry.taylor.casual@theguardian.com or via Twitter @HarryTaylr.

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‘Dire need’: Australia urged to offer more aid to Indonesia as Covid crushes health system

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Critics say government not doing enough to help neighbour as record cases deplete oxygen supplies

The Australian government has been urged to rapidly step up its assistance to Indonesia, amid warnings the sharp rise in Covid-19 cases is fuelling an “escalating crisis right on our doorstep”.

With aid groups fearing the Indonesian health system is on the verge of collapse, and with oxygen and bed shortages reported in some hospitals, there are growing calls for the Morrison government to help its most populous neighbour.

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England’s ‘freedom day’ to be day of fear for elderly people, charities warn

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Vulnerable and immunocompromised people anxious about 19 July end to Covid rules

Boris Johnson’s “freedom day” will be a day of fear for elderly and vulnerable people and those with compromised or suppressed immune systems, for whom the efficacy of vaccines is much reduced, charities have warned.

Citing the statement by the new health secretary, Sajid Javid, that Covid infections could surge to a record 100,000 a day in a few weeks after all social distancing and mask-wearing regulations are removed in England, Blood Cancer UK has said that 19 July “will be the day that it feels like freedoms are being taken away from” many people.

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Javid: no need for fully vaccinated Covid contacts to self-isolate from 16 August – video

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Close contacts of people in England who have tested positive for Covid will not need to self-isolate if they have received both Covid jabs, or if they are under 18, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, has told the Commons. People will still need to self-isolate if they test positive for the virus. 'This new approach means we can manage the virus in a way that's proportionate to the pandemic while maintaining the freedoms that are so important to us all,' he said

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Crackdown on ‘vaccine sommeliers’ as Covid pandemic grips Brazil

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Although four vaccines are available, some shots are deemed by some more desirable than others

Cities across Brazil are clamping down on “vaccine sommeliers” who seek to cherrypick their Covid shots despite the devastating epidemic still gripping Latin America’s largest nation.

More than half a million Brazilians have lost their lives to an outbreak the country’s president, Jair Bolsonaro, stands accused of ruinously mishandling. Yet some citizens have shown themselves to be perplexingly selective about which brand of vaccine they receive.

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To mask or not to mask: what will Johnson and others do after 19 July?

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The PM says he will keep his covering in crowded places after England’s rules change but what do his ministers and experts think?

Boris Johnson has said he will continue to wear a mask in “crowded places” after mandatory requirements are dropped in England on 19 July.

“What we’re trying to do is move from a universal government diktat to relying on people’s personal responsibility,” he told Monday’s Downing Street press conference. “Clearly there’s a big difference between travelling on a crowded Tube train and sitting late at night in a virtually empty carriage on the main railway line. So what we want to do is for people to exercise their personal responsibility but to remember the value of face coverings both in protecting themselves and others.”

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Sajid Javid says England is in ‘uncharted territory’ with Covid unlocking – video

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The health secretary said the government expects cases could reach as high as 50,000 cases a day by the time measures are fully relaxed on 19 July, and continue rising. Figures show 27,334 people across the UK tested positive reported on 5 July

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Qld Covid restrictions: update to Brisbane, south-east Queensland and Townsville coronavirus rules explained

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Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced changes to restrictions in Brisbane, Townsville and several SEQ local government areas. Here’s the full list of what you can and can’t do in Qld

The Queensland government has outlined two weeks of restrictions following the short lockdown of Brisbane and surrounding areas.

Brisbane City Council and the Moreton Bay local government area, north of the city, came out of lockdown at 6pm on Saturday, 3 July.

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NSW Covid update: Sydney hospitals on ‘red alert’ as more than 600 health workers in isolation over case contact

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More than 500 staff at Royal North Shore hospital, and more than 120 staff at Fairfield hospital, are now isolating and unable to work

Hundreds of health workers have been forced to isolate after being deemed close contacts of an unvaccinated student nurse who worked across two Sydney hospitals while infectious with Covid-19, wreaking havoc on staffing levels.

As hospitals in greater Sydney were placed on ‘red alert’ due to the latest Covid outbreak, restrictions on visitors triggered alarm among expectant mothers.

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Chris Whitty says keeping Covid restrictions will only delay next wave – video

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Prof Chris Whitty has warned that maintaining the current Covid restrictions through the summer would only delay a wave of hospitalisations and deaths rather than reduce them, as Boris Johnson announced that most social distancing and mask rules would be lifted on 19 July. 

The chief medical officer for England said: 'At a certain point, you move to the situation where instead of actually averting hospitalisations and deaths, you move over to just delaying them. So you’re not actually changing the number of people who will go to hospital or die, you may change when they happen.'

However, Whitty also cautioned that while there was a 'pretty high' level of scientific agreement over the government's decision last month to delay the original lifting of restrictions for four weeks, the view in regards to opening back up is 'more mixed'. 

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Prosecutors examine claims Covid spread in Italy before official confirmation

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New evidence ‘could change the timeline of the pandemic in Italy’, say lawyers for victims’ families

Italian prosecutors are examining fresh evidence that suggests coronavirus was spreading in the country weeks before the first case of local transmission was officially detected as criminal investigations continue into continental Europe’s deadliest outbreak.

Lawyers representing the families of Covid-19 victims say the medical records of a man in his 50s who was admitted to a hospital with bilateral pneumonia at the end of January 2020 in Bergamo, the Lombardy province severely hit during the first wave of the pandemic, “could change the timeline of the pandemic in Italy”.

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Corruption allegations increase pressure on Bolsonaro

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Reports claim Brazilian president, already accused of mishandling Covid, was involved in embezzlement scheme

The Brazilian president has come under further pressure after being personally implicated in an alleged corruption racket involving the supposed misappropriation of his workforce’s wages.

Jair Bolsonaro, a far-right populist who admires Donald Trump, took office in January 2019 vowing to “forever free the fatherland from the yoke of corruption”.

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Why living with Covid would not be the same as flu

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Analysis: coronavirus is more contagious and more lethal than influenza, and we lack the same global protection mechanism

As England prepares to ease coronavirus restrictions further, the messaging from ministers has changed. We have reached, it seems, a tipping point in the pandemic where rules will be replaced by personal decisions. The mantra now is about living with coronavirus, much as we do with seasonal flu.

The pandemic has invited countless comparisons between coronavirus and influenza and the diseases do have some features in common. Both are contagious, potentially lethal respiratory viruses. They can spread through aerosols, droplets and contaminated surfaces. And they share some of the same symptoms in the form of fever, cough, headaches and fatigue. In the winter ahead, one challenge the NHS faces is separating the Covid patients from the flu cases.

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Surging Covid and unlocking: does England risk being a variant factory?

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Many scientists argue that lifting all restrictions at this stage will increase likelihood of dangerous variants

Covid cases in the UK are rising exponentially, largely in younger age groups who are more likely to be partially or completely unvaccinated. What does this mean for the risk of new variants popping up?

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Covid Australia live updates: 620 NSW health staff isolating and visitors restricted as all Greater Sydney hospitals on ‘red alert’

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New Zealand restarts the travel bubble with Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and the ACT; infected aged care resident at SummitCare home in NSW was not vaccinated. Follow latest updates

Circling back on that story involving the NRL penalties handed out to St George Illawarra players for attending a party in breach of Covid-19 restrictions.

Sure, there’s enormous fines of $305,000 total for the 13 players. But the suspensions are also fairly significant, ranging from eight matches, handed down to Paul Vaughan, who hosted the party, to one match for some of the attendees.

The NRL alleges that player Paul Vaughan invited players to a gathering at his home on Saturday 3 July which was attended by 12 teammates, in breach of NSW Public Health Orders and the Game’s biosecurity protocols. It’s alleged a number of players hid or fled the residence when NSW Police attended the home after complaints from neighbours.

It’s also alleged that a number of players gave or were involved in giving misleading information about the event during the NRL’s investigation into the breaches and that some of the players conspired to withhold key information from the NRL. The notices allege that all players involved knowingly breached the game’s biosecurity rules by attending the premeditated gathering. They were made aware of the game’s Biosecurity Protocols by the club and admit they knew they were breaching the game’s rules.

It has been very hot in New Zealand, which is not a great sign for the planet (but worth considering if you’re planning on travelling there now the bubble has reformed):

Related: New Zealand experiences hottest June on record despite polar blast

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Coronavirus live news: Australian minister likens vaccines race to Hunger Games; Indonesia says ‘no vaccine, no entry’

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New South Wales health minister makes frank assessment of sluggish rollout; from 6 July foreigners and nationals entering Indonesia must be vaccinated

If you missed it yesterday, US president Joe Biden, speaking at a White House party marking the Fourth of July, urged Americans to get vaccinated to stave off a rise in cases of the coronavirus Delta variant, describing it as the patriotic thing to do.

“Think back to where this nation was a year ago,” the president said in a speech on the theme of “Independence Day and independence from Covid-19”.

Andrew Sparrow has launched his UK live blog for the day with this opening:

In September last year, announcing his winter economy plan, Rishi Sunak, the chancellor, gave a speech saying the country had to start getting back to normal because it could not live with restrictions forever. “We must learn to live with it [coronavirus] and live without fear,” he said. With its implied refusal to defer to the ‘health and safety’ science lobby, its worldly realism about risk and its focus on the interests of the economy, the speech delighted Conservative MPs.

Unfortunately, it turned out to be premature. There were two more lockdowns to come. But this afternoon Boris Johnson is essentially going to resurrect Sunak’s message from last autumn when he explains what the government wants to happen in England from 19 July, the date set for the final lifting of restrictions.

Related: UK Covid live: Johnson urged to keep mask rule for public transport amid fears of rash England unlocking

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Getting vaccinated is patriotic, says Joe Biden on Fourth of July – video

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Speaking at a White House party marking the Fourth of July, Joe Biden urged Americans to get vaccinated to stave off a rise in cases of the coronavirus Delta variant. 'Think back to where this nation was a year ago,' the president said in a speech on the theme of 'Independence Day and independence from Covid-19'.  The Biden administration has missed its aim of having 70% of adult Americans with at least one shot by the holiday weekend 

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New York’s patchwork recovery masks vast inequities laid bare by Covid

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There are signs of renewal in a city that has weathered crisis after crisis, but what its future looks like remains an open question

For most of the past year, Manhattan’s signature yellow cabs have been a rarity on the avenues and cross-streets. Now, as the city picks up and office workers begin to return, they too are returning – but not yet on a pre-pandemic scale. At the same time, the city is gridlocked by traffic.

A patchwork of indicators suggest the recovery from a pandemic that hit hard and early, caused close to 30,000 deaths out of a 8.4-million population and placed the metropolis in an economic deep-freeze will be similarly uneven.

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Pop-up ‘coronabikes’ test German love of order

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Mobile Covid testing units offering results in 15 minutes are among a host of rapid tests that play a crucial role in keeping rates down

Parked outside an espresso bar on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz junction, Maximilian Fritzsch’s mobile coronavirus testing unit aims for similar speed of service as an on-the-go shot of caffeine. Working from the back of a cargo e-bike, staff in lab coats take a quick swab from the nostrils of stressed commuters, who usually receive the result in their inboxes within 15 minutes.

“It is a bit physically intrusive”, said office worker Luisa Larsen, 42, as she impatiently checked her smartphone for the test result. “But then again it’s free, and it feels like the responsible thing to do.”

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‘Idea of commuting fills me with dread’: workers on returning to the office

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Staff warily contemplate going back to work as business leaders say it is vital to boost urban economy

With the lifting of coronavirus restrictions in England probably two weeks away, the prospect of returning to offices means the revival of the daily commute.

In a push to bring back more people to town and city centres to boost the urban economy, a group of 50 business leaders, including the Canary Wharf executive chair, Sir George Iacobescu, the bosses of Heathrow and Gatwick airports, the Capita chief executive, Jon Lewis, and the BT chief executive, Philip Jansen, are calling for the government to encourage a return to the office.

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