Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak

Coronavirus live updates Australia: NSW eases restrictions as Victoria records 12 new Covid cases and two deaths

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Victorian health minister Jenny Mikakos has told the hotel inquiry she had no role in the hiring of private security, while NSW Covid restrictions eased at schools and weddings. Follow live

And that includes a breakdown of the current cases and clusters:

In Victoria at the current time:

Victoria Health has put out its official update:

Victoria has recorded 12 new cases of coronavirus since yesterday, with the total number of cases now at 20,105.

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Coronavirus live news: global deaths pass 975,000 as Israel plans for stricter lockdown

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Israel announces plans for stricter lockdown; Paris to unveil tighter restrictions; Follow the latest updates

Israel is tightening its coronavirus lockdown after an alarming spike in new cases, the cabiney decided on Thursday morning.

Bejamin Netanyahu, prime minister, has voiced alarm that a surge in infections was pushing the nation to “the edge of the abyss”.

Rarely can there have been a more low-key beginning to the cricket season in Australia. It’s usually a time of optimism as spring blooms and sports grounds are transformed from hosting football codes of different types into cricket ovals.

But of course 2020 is different and, as Australia’s Megan Schutt explains here, it’s all a bit surreal knowing that the teams have to put on a big show despite the lack of ceremony or razzamatazz in the Covid-era.

Related: Surreal and a little bit scary: cricket returns to Australia in the Covid era | Megan Schutt

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Coronavirus live news: Spain passes 700,000 cases as Madrid braces for ‘tough weeks ahead’

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Daily deaths in Spain at highest level since early May; Portugal to extend restrictions; Netherlands hits record of 2,544 daily cases; 1,136 new infections in Poland

The French government may be pushing for people to download its Covid-19 contact-tracing app, but when asked whether he had done so, prime minister Jean Castex said he had not because he does not take the metro.

The app was launched at the start of June to much fanfare from the government, but three months later only 2.4 million people out of a 67 million population have downloaded it

Brazil has recorded 32,817 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, and 831 deaths from the disease.

South America’s largest country has registered more than 4.6 million cases of the virus since the pandemic began, according to ministry data, ranking it as the third worst outbreak in the world after the US and India.

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‘I no longer participate’: Dutch celebrities rebel over Covid constraints

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Rapper Famke Louise joined by Bizzy and others refusing to follow government advice

They are young, famous and refusing to abide by the coronavirus restrictions. A group of Dutch celebrities have triggered both a sizeable backlash and a national debate after breaking cover on social media with the hashtag #ikdoenietmeermee, (I no longer participate).

The central figure is the rapper and model Famke Louise, 21, who told her 1 million Instagram followers she was no longer willing to go along with the growing number of restrictions designed to slow the spread of the virus. “Only together can we regain control of the government,” she said. “I no longer participate. Free the people.”

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Germany’s furlough scheme saves firms from freefall

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Story of one Berlin travel agent illustrates how the Kurzarbeit scheme has kept businesses afloat

Without Germany’s furlough scheme, called Kurzarbeit (“short work”), Wulf Scheunert’s travel agency BITS would by now be “in freefall”, as he puts it.

Related: Rishi Sunak could do worse than copy Germany

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Public not to blame for second wave of Covid-19, says Keir Starmer

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Labour leader points to government mismanagement of virus in televised address

The public are not to blame for a resurgence of coronavirus and have been let down by the government, Keir Starmer has said in a televised address following the prime minister’s broadcast on Tuesday night.

The Labour leader’s remarks pointing the finger at government incompetence come in stark contrast to Boris Johnson’s address, where he appeared to suggest that “freedom-loving” Britons would be to blame if more draconian restrictions were applied.

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Rishi Sunak could do worse than copy Germany

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There is evidence that scheme under which Berlin tops up wages of those put on short-time working is effective

It all looked so different for Rishi Sunak three weeks ago. After a bleak early spring in which the economy was sacrificed for health reasons, there were signs that the worst might be over.

Related: Germany’s furlough scheme saves firms from freefall

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England’s Covid restrictions: the ‘rule of sex’ and other quirks

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Despite government’s efforts, rules for Covid-safe behaviour are far from simple

The longer the coronavirus lockdown lasts, the more complex the suite of rules governing everyday behaviour seemingly become, despite the government’s efforts to simplify matters with the rule of six.

A new set of restrictions was unveiled on Tuesday, with the full regulations due to be published later on Wednesday. Here are some nuances and quirks to have emerged so far. These apply only to the default rules for England; they differ in other UK nations and where stricter local lockdowns are in force.

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As Covid cases rise again, how are countries in Europe reacting?

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Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent

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UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson faces Keir Starmer at PMQs after new restrictions unveiled

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English rules don’t go ‘anywhere near far enough’, says leading government Covid adviser

Starmer says Johnson said the opposite yesterday. Everyone can read it in Hansard. He says a week ago the PM acknowledged that there was a problem. Is the PM saying capacity is the problem, as Dido Harding says? Or he is saying that too many healthy people are requesting tests, as Matt Hancock says?

Johnson says the attacks on Harding from Labour are unseeming. He says the government is going to get testing up to 500,000 per day. He says he wants to hear “more of the spirit of togetherness” that was on display yesterday.

So why did Johnson says yesterday it had “very little” to do with the spread of the disease, Starmer asks.

Johnson says it is an “epidemiological fact” that transmission takes place human to human. And capacity today is at a record high, he says.

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Shortages threaten Johnson’s pledge of 500,000 UK Covid tests a day

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Exclusive: chemicals and machines needed to hit target by end of October are ‘a few weeks behind’

A pledge to hit 500,000 coronavirus tests a day in the UK by the end of next month could be missed as vital chemicals and analysing machines needed to hit the target are “a few weeks” behind schedule, the body representing their manufacturers has said.

Boris Johnson has insisted the UK will hit the target by the end of October, up from about 260,000 capacity now, despite a number of problems including people told to travel hundreds of miles and delays in getting results back.

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Coronavirus live news: Paris due to unveil tighter restrictions; record weekly rise in global cases

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Paris move would follow curbs in other French cities; world reports just under two million Covid-19 cases in one week

Travel restrictions around Europe aimed at curbing coronavirus contagion ravaged Spain’s tourism industry during the crucial month of August, depriving it of millions of tourists, Reuters reports.

The number of nights booked in Spanish hotels fell 64% last month from a year ago, data from the National Statistics Institute showed on Wednesday.
In the first eight months of the year, hotel bookings slumped 70% from the same period in 2019.

The Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz has announced the cancellation of this year’s Vienna Opera Ball, a glamorous society event that usually marks the peak of the Austrian ball season.

The government cited rising Covid-19 infection rates in the Alpine country as the reason for calling off the event, which was planned for 11 February 2021. While the Vienna State Opera put a lot of effort into security concepts, the wellbeing of participants could not have been guaranteed, the government said.

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Breonna Taylor decision: two officers shot in Louisville as protests erupt across US – live

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A few moments ago, a driver drove into a group of protestors. There were no serious injuries, Denver police have confirmed, and a man has been detained.

#DPD Officers are at Colfax & Broadway in response to a vehicle that drove into a protest occurring at that location. No injuries are reported. One male has been detained. #Denver. pic.twitter.com/Ge8zDLZTju

JUST IN: Video from a @denverpost reporter shows the moment a driver ran their car over a protester outside the Colorado State Capitol.

The protester, Kate, told @ShellyBradbury she was not badly hurt.

Denver police say a man has been detained. https://t.co/LNPZVmAiTO

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who is representing the family of Breonna Taylor, has told CNN the indictment is, “like killing Breonna all over again.”

He called her death, “Legalized genocide of people of color, because no matter how much evidence we have, they always find a way to try to legally justify it.”

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‘I cry before work’: US essential workers burned out amid pandemic

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Essential workers reported stress caused by increased workloads, understaffing, fears over Covid and struggles in enforcing social distancing

Terri Prunty Kay has worked as a cashier at Walmart in Sonoma county, California since 2011. She had never cried at work because of treatment from customers before the pandemic.

“It’s been a nightmare,” she said. “The first three months there were item limits. Everyone was angry and combative. Now it’s the masks.”

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Global report: Donald Trump calls 200,000 US coronavirus deaths ‘a shame’

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US president says it could have been 2.5 million deaths; Japan considers easing border controls; WHO announces record weekly cases

President Donald Trump has said the 200,000 US deaths from coronavirus were “a shame” in response to a reporter’s question about the milestone in the country’s fight against the pandemic.

As Trump was departing for an election campaign event in Pittsburgh he told the media: “I think if we didn’t do it properly and do it right, you’d have 2.5 million deaths.”

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Aid agencies warn of Covid-19 crisis in refugee camps as winter approaches

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Displaced populations across the Middle East, already in cramped, unhygienic conditions, face a health catastrophe as infections rise

Throughout the coronavirus pandemic an abiding fear had stalked the world’s most vulnerable populations. Millions of people displaced by conflict in the Middle East watched with alarm as Europe and the west withered under a caseload that stretched first-world healthcare systems to their limits. They saw field hospitals being set up in capitals. Governments buckling under the strain. The developing world offering aid to the developed.

It seemed inevitable that the contagion would reach those less able to absorb its impact. And now, as second and third waves of Covid-19 surge around the globe, worst fears are being realised. Several months into the crisis, the virus has crept into the populations of refugees and internally displaced people, where stopping its advance will be close to impossible. Up to 15 million people across the region, many of whom were already at risk of disease, now face a rampant spread through their communities.

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Jacinda Ardern’s Covid success gives National little room to move on policy

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Labour’s Covid policies and popularity means the opposition is effectively cornered when it comes to presenting a different choice to voters

Its record on eliminating Covid-19 and bringing a second outbreak under control has drawn praise for New Zealand from around the world. Now, the centre-left Labour party, led by the wildly popular Jacinda Ardern, faces an election bolstered by their success in containing the virus – but darkened by the shadow of the country’s worst recession in years.

At the polls on 17 October, voters will be asked to choose between slightly different approaches to who would be allowed to enter the country, whether border quarantine should be government-managed or partially privatised, and the best economic recipe to recover from the pandemic.

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Trump says 200,000 US coronavirus deaths ‘a shame’ – video

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The US president says: 'Well, I think it’s a shame' when asked by a White House reporter about the 200,000 coronavirus deaths in the US  – a fifth of the global total and the highest of any country worldwide. He claims the US could have had 2.5 million deaths 'if we didn't do it properly'. Trump also repeats his accusation that China is at fault for the pandemic.

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China rejects Donald Trump’s ‘baseless’ coronavirus accusations – video

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China’s UN representative Zhang Jun said the country rejected 'baseless accusations' around coronavirus before introducing President Xi Jinping.

In a video address, Donald Trump said the UN had to take action against China and called for Beijing to be held accountable by the UN for 'releasing the virus'

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Boris Johnson outlines tighter Covid rules for England – video

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The UK is at a 'perilous turning point' and must act, Boris Johnson has told MPs, announcing new restrictions for England including reducing the size of wedding gatherings and bans on indoor team sports, as well as a return to home working

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