Category Archives: Coronavirus

Turkey resists calls for tougher measures to tackle Covid-19 surge

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New restrictions including a 10pm hospitality curfew criticised as not going far enough

Turkey is resisting implementing tough measures to combat Covid-19 despite fears that a second wave of the coronavirus is taking hold in the country and as several European states declare new lockdowns.

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, announced on Tuesday that restaurants, bars, hairdressers, barbers, cinemas and all other similar entertainment venues and businesses across Turkey would have to close at 10pm. Flexible working hours across both the private and public sectors were encouraged, he added, and mosques and schools would remain open for now.

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Fighting reported in Ethiopia after PM responds to ‘attack’ by regional ruling party

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Abiy Ahmed says defence forces mobilised in Tigray region ‘to save the country’

Fighting has been reported in northern Ethiopia after the country’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, ordered a military response to an “attack” by the ruling party of the restive Tigray region on a camp housing federal troops.

Analysts and diplomats have been warning for weeks that a standoff between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) could plunge Ethiopia into a bitter and bloody civil conflict.

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Coronavirus live news: seven US states report record hospitalisations; France suffers highest deaths since April

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France sees 854 new deaths and 36,330 new cases; UK sees highest deaths since May; Italy fears ‘tsunami’ of hospitalisations.

Twitter has permanently suspended the account of the conspiracy theorist David Icke. A spokesman for the social media platform said Icke had violated its rules regarding coronavirus misinformation, PA Media reports.

The move follows the decision by YouTube and Facebook to terminate Icke’s accounts in early May for the same reason.

Related: Twitter permanently suspends conspiracy theorist David Icke’s account

Here is what we know so far about the US election. Among other things:

According to a CNN nationwide exit poll, about a third of voters said the economy was most important to them, around one in five said racial inequality and about one in six said the coronavirus pandemic.

We'll be updating this summary of what we know – and don't know – throughout the night:https://t.co/LZqwjQNhbl

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NSW-Victoria border to open on 23 November; Australia awaits American election outcome – politics live

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‘We need to keep moving forward as we live with Covid-19,’ Gladys Berejiklian says. We’ll also be bringing you Australian reaction to that election, as it happens

The Queensland election may be over, but that doesn’t mean the border wars have ended.

As AAP reports:

It’s like the whole of Australia – in terms of politics – has stopped right now.

It’s all about the US.

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Twitter permanently suspends conspiracy theorist David Icke’s account

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Social media platform said Icke had violated its rules regarding coronavirus misinformation

Twitter has permanently suspended the account of the conspiracy theorist David Icke.

A spokesman for the social media platform said Icke had violated its rules regarding coronavirus misinformation.

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UK can expect at least three Covid waves with lockdowns, Mordaunt says

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Tory MP defends strategy as rebels warn they will not vote to extend latest restrictions

The UK should be braced for at least a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic and further lockdowns, a minister has said as Tory sceptics warned they would not vote to extend England’s four-week shutdown.

Penny Mordaunt, the paymaster general, told MPs on Tuesday that there could yet be a rolling series of lockdowns – but argued this was not evidence that the measure was ineffective.

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Lockdown aim is to reduce Covid enough by 2 December to move on, says Whitty – video

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The chief medical officer for England has told MPs the aim of the lockdown is to reduce infection rates to a point where there is a 'realistic possibility' of restrictions being eased after 2 December. England will enter a second national lockdown on Thursday after a steep rise in the number of coronavirus infections and hospital admissions in many areas of the country. The UK's chief scientific adviser, Sir Patrick Vallance, said test and trace was not having a 'big impact' on the prevalence of the virus

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Rich states’ Covid deals ‘may deprive poor of vaccine for years’

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Wealthy countries already have agreements for 3.73bn doses, with another 5m under negotiation, study finds

Governments in predominantly wealthy countries are negotiating to buy nearly 8.8bn doses of prospective Covid-19 vaccines in a “frenzy of deals” that could mean many poor countries would not get access to immunisation until at least 2024, a report says.

None of the 320-plus potential vaccines in development have been approved for use, but countries have already struck advance purchasing agreements for 3.73bn doses of the most promising candidates, with negotiations underway for another 5bn doses, the study by Duke University’s global health innovation centre calculated.

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Deciphering the quirks of England’s second Covid lockdown rules

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Details around the restrictions are proving complex enough to puzzle even ministers

The government has published the full regulations for England’s second national lockdown, which is to begin on Thursday and will last for four weeks. A number of details had already emerged, and some are sufficiently complex to have puzzled even ministers.

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Birx warns US entering ‘deadly phase’ of Covid, contradicting Trump’s message

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Deborah Birx says ‘we are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase’ as Trump claims US is ‘rounding the corner’

White House scientific adviser Dr Deborah Birx warned the United States is entering a new “deadly phase” of the coronavirus pandemic, and urged an “aggressive” approach to containing its spread.

Birx gave the warning in a written memo delivered to top administration officials Monday. It is a direct contradiction of one of Donald Trump’s central, and false, closing campaign messages – that the US is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic.

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Coronavirus live news: France sees record new cases; WHO warns it’s ‘not too late’ to take critical action

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Portugal considering state of emergency; Italy’s coronavirus strategy is ‘wasting time’, says scientific advisor; Germany begins ‘light lockdown’. Follow the latest updates.

In the UK Liverpool (otherwise known as the World’s Best City) is set to become the first to have mass test-and-trace operation. My colleagues Sarah Boseley and Jess Elgot write:

Up to half a million people in Liverpool will be tested for Covid-19 under the UK government’s first attempt to embark on city-wide mass testing.

Related: Liverpool to pioneer UK's first attempt at mass Covid testing

Indonesia has reported 2,973 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 418,375, according to data from the country’s health ministry.

The country has also reported an additional 102 deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 14,146.

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China changes school curriculum to reflect Beijing’s positive Covid narrative

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Content added to classes will say the state ‘aways put the life and safety of its people first’

Chinese government-endorsed content about the pandemic and the “fighting spirit” of the country’s response will be added to school curriculum, the country’s ministry of education has said, in a move to enshrine the country’s narrative of success against the virus.

The content will be added to elementary and middle school classes in biology, health and physical education, history, and literature, and will “help students understand the basic fact that the Party and the state always put the life and safety of its people first”, the ministry said on Wednesday.

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New Zealanders coming home for Christmas warned quarantine hotels may be full

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Military says Kiwis will be disappointed if they haven’t prebooked a place as hotels approach capacity

New Zealand’s quarantine hotels are approaching capacity as the military warns there may not be room to house Kiwis planning to return home for Christmas.

Some 65,000 people have passed through New Zealand’s quarantine hotels since the borders closed in mid-March. Despite the facilities generally being four- and five-star establishments, there have been multiple escape attempts from them, and they have been denounced by a conservative US television host as “Covid camps”.

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Liverpool to pioneer UK’s first attempt at mass Covid testing

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Up to 500,000 people in city will be tested in bid to measure feasibility of mass population screening

Up to half a million people in Liverpool are set to be tested for Covid-19 under the UK government’s first attempt to embark on city-wide mass testing and track down every case of the virus.

The Guardian also understands that the self-isolation period for those who test positive for coronavirus, and their contacts, could be cut from the current 14-day period to seven days as early as this week.

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UK coronavirus live: Starmer accuses Johnson of ‘catastrophic failure of leadership’ over England lockdown

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Latest updates: PM tells MPs he makes no apology for trying to avoid a nationwide lockdown

Ruth Davidson, the former Scottish Conservative leader, and current Tory leader in the Scottish parliament, is confident that Boris Johnson was making a concession to Scotland (and the other devolved administrations too, presumably) on furlough. See 5.34pm.

Under questioning from @Douglas4Moray, PM gives reassurance that furlough is available to devolved administrations now and in the future https://t.co/2aE8rEtEDj

In the Commons Douglas Ross, the Scottish Conservative leader, asked if Scotland could access the furlough scheme beyond November.

Johnson said the furlough scheme was a UK-wide scheme.

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US election 2020: Trump again defends supporters who harassed Biden campaign bus – live

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Donald Trump’s speech in North Carolina has focused on gripes about his polling numbers, the press and social media.

The president complained that Twitter’s trending topics are always “boring” and focused on him, instead of exciting things like “scandals” and “affairs.”

Joe Biden is closing his presidential campaign in much the same manner that he started it: by arguing this election represents a “battle for the soul of the nation.”

“The character of America is literally on the ballot,” the Democratic nominee said at his drive-in rally in Cleveland. “It’s time to take back our democracy.”

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The lockdown rebels preparing to defy No 10 on Covid restrictions

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From former Tory ministers to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK, the key figures standing against a second lockdown

As England braces for a second national lockdown, Downing Street once more faces a rebellion over tougher restrictions. Ahead of a Commons vote on Wednesday, several Conservative MPs are weighing up their options. Here are some key figures who may line up against the government and the broad camps they sit in, alongside Nigel Farage and his plan for a new anti-lockdown party.

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What is the science behind England’s second national lockdown?

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PM was presented with some alarming data – with one model forecasting up to 4,000 Covid deaths a day next month

England is preparing to enter a second national lockdown after scientific advisers warned that coronavirus infections and the numbers of people in hospital are rising steeply in many areas of the country. But what is the science behind the decision?

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Slovakia carries out Covid mass testing of two-thirds of population

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Country aims to be one of first to test entire population of 5.4 million people for virus

Two-thirds of Slovakia’s population of 5.4 million people were tested for coronavirus over the weekend as part of a programme aimed at making it one of the first countries to test its entire population.

Antigen tests were carried out on 3.625 million people – of whom 38,359, or 1.06%, were found to be positive.

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Latest coronavirus lockdowns spark protests across Europe

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Libertarians and conspiracy theorists join business owners in opposing new restrictions

Fresh lockdowns to stem the spread of coronavirus have sparked sometimes violent protests in several European countries, fuelled both by ideological fury at new government-imposed restrictions and fears of economic hardship.

As the number of infections surge and hospitals and intensive care units fill up, countries including Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain have once more introduced tough curbs on movement and gatherings.

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