Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak

Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria reports 45 new Covid-19 cases and five more deaths

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Queensland to reopen border to ACT residents from 25 September as national cabinet split over flight caps. Follow live

Victoria police have fined 76 people over the past 24 hours, including eight for not wearing a face mask.

Examples include three men “located in a carpark with no legitimate reasons for being there” and one man and one woman who drove from Tarneit to St Kilda East “to buy fried chicken”.

Queensland will re-open its border to people from the ACT from 25 September, the health minister Steven Miles has just announced.

Queensland has announced no new cases today.

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Covid-19: UK test and trace ‘barely functional’ as 11 million face lockdown

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With local lockdowns set to spread, report shows 90% of tests failing to hit turnaround target

The coronavirus test and trace system was condemned as “barely functional” today as its tsar admitted that demand was up to four times capacity, while 90% of tests were failing to hit the 24-hour turnaround target.

The Guardian has seen documents showing tracers taking up to two weeks to contact friends, relatives and workmates of people diagnosed with Covid-19 – the entire length of the self-isolation period.

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Ontario announces new restrictions and steep fines amid Covid-19 surge

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Premier Doug Ford to limit size of indoor gatherings to 10, down from 50, saying ‘crisis is far from over’

Canada’s most populous province has announced new restrictions and steep fines amid a surge of Covid-19 infections that has prompted concerns the country is losing control of the virus.

Ontario premier Doug Ford on Thursday announced plans to limit the size of gatherings, reversing course on previous steps to reopen the province’s economy. The new rules reduce the size of indoor gatherings to 10, down from 50, and outdoor gatherings to 25, down from 100.

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Coronavirus: ‘alarming rates of transmission’ in Europe, says WHO – video

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The World Health Organization has warned of ‘alarming’ transmission rates of Covid-19 in Europe, an increase on June, when the curve had been flattened.

More than half of European countries reported increases of 10% or more during the past two weeks, while infections more than doubled over the same 14-day period in seven countries

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Wealth of US billionaires rises by nearly a third during pandemic

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Report includes Jeff Bezos, whose personal fortune has risen by 65% since 18 March

The already vast fortunes of America’s 643 billionaires have soared by an average of 29% since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, which has at the same time laid waste to tens of millions of jobs around the world.

The richest of the superrich have benefited by $845bn , according to a report by a US progressive thinktank, the Institute for Policy Studies.

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‘The battle is not over’: Hancock announces new Covid restrictions in north-east England – video

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Nearly 2 million people in north-east England will be banned from mixing with other families, under the strictest measures imposed since the country eased out of nationwide lockdown. The restrictions include a 10pm curfew on nightlife.

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, announced the measures following a sharp rise in coronavirus cases in the north-east and amid growing concern about a UK-wide rise in cases. 'With winter on the horizon, we must prepare, bolster our defences and come together once again against this common foe,' he said. 

The rules will apply to people in Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead, County Durham and Sunderland

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Boris Johnson not considering second national lockdown, says health minister – video

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Edward Argar denied the government is considering a two-week national lockdown, after a London-based former World Health Organization expert said the coronavirus infection rate could be nearing 38,000 a day. Argar said there was 'speculation in the press' that a new lockdown would be necessary to contain a rapid rise in infections, but said the prime minister did not want such tough measures to be reimposed nationally

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Staple food prices rise by 50% in Sudan amid economic strife, floods and Covid

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Cost of sugar, bread and transport soar, while promised World Bank aid is yet to arrive

Millions of people in Sudan are facing hardship as the cost of food and transport soars amid economic turmoil in the country.

The cost of some staple foods like bread and sugar has increased by 50% over the past few weeks, driving inflation to a record high of 167%, up from 144% in July.

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Donald Trump says CDC director ‘confused’ about Covid-19 vaccine arrival date – video

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US president predicts that at least 100m doses of a coronavirus vaccine can be distributed by the end of 2020, contradicting a top government health official Trump dismisses as confused.

Hours earlier, Robert Redfield, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said a Covid-19 vaccine could be broadly rolled out by the middle of next year or a little later.

‘No I think he made a mistake when he said that,’ Trump says. ‘That’s incorrect information. ‘I think he just misunderstood the question, probably.’

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UK coronavirus live: minister dismisses claim PM preparing for new two-week national lockdown

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News updates: Edward Argar says Boris Johnson does not want a new national lockdown; Matt Hancock due to announce restrictions in north-east of England

Care providers in England will receive more than £500m extra funding to help reduce transmission of Covid-19 during the winter, the government has announced. As PA Media reports, the infection control fund will help pay staff full wages when they are self-isolating and ensure carers work in only one care home, reducing the risk of spreading the infection. The fund was set up in May but has now been extended until March 2021 and will offer the sector an extra £546m ahead of an anticipated second wave of the virus over the winter months.

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Coronavirus live news: infections surge in Czech Republic; India reports 97,894 new cases

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Czech Republic records 2,139 new cases; India reports world record one-day cases; Trump appointee to take leave after rant likening CDC scientists to ‘resistance’

The global economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic may take as much as five years, the World Bank’s chief economist Carmen Reinhart has said.

“There will probably be a quick rebound as all the restriction measures linked to lockdowns are lifted, but a full recovery will take as much as five years,” Reinhart said in a speech during a conference held in Madrid.

The Czech Republic has reported more than 2,000 new Covid cases in a single day for the first time as it battles a surge in infections that is among the fastest in Europe.

The health ministry recorded 2,139 cases of the new coronavirus on Wednesday, up from a previous record of 1,675 reported the previous day, Reuters reports.

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‘Off the charts’: Ireland’s contact tracers face return of sleepless nights

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Tracers express their fears as infected people reveal multiple close contacts in multiple locations

In the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, Ireland’s contact tracers often made calls to people who were very sick, with some struggling to breathe.

“In a lot of cases people were suffering extreme physical distress,” said Eamonn Gormley, a tracer at University College Dublin. “One person collapsed on the floor and we could hear them gasping for air. You got questions like: ‘Am I going to die?’ Some nights I had trouble sleeping.”

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Global report: China locks down border city in response to two Covid cases

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Checkpoints prevent anyone entering or leaving city of Ruili; WHO warns against swift reopening in Latin America; New Zealand in recession

China has locked down a city on its border with Myanmar and launched a campaign to test the city’s entire population of more than 200,000 people.

Officials in Ruili in Yunnan province said the city had entered a state of “wartime” defences against Covid-19 after two new cases emerged among travellers from Myanmar. Residents have been ordered to stay at home and authorities have set up checkpoints to prevent anyone entering or leaving Ruili and restricting access to border areas nearby. Most businesses have been closed.

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Southern hemisphere has record low flu cases amid Covid lockdowns

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Data offers hope as winter looms in north and raises viability of eliminating future flu pandemics

Health systems across the southern hemisphere were bracing a few months ago for their annual surge in influenza cases, which alongside Covid-19 could have overwhelmed hospitals. They never came.

Many countries in the southern half of the globe have instead experienced either record low levels of flu or none at all, public health specialists in Australia, New Zealand and South America have said, sparing potentially tens of thousands of lives and offering a glimmer of hope as winter approaches in the northern hemisphere.

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‘Face masks are our best defence,’ says CDC director Redfield – video

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Dr Robert Redfield, testifying before a Senate subcommittee, suggested face masks may be even more effective than a vaccine in limiting the spread of the coronavirus.

The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said face masks are 'the most important, powerful public health tool we have'

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Minorities much more likely than white people to test positive for Covid – study

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New study also finds that people of color are at higher risk than whites of hospitalizations and death from coronavirus

People of colour are significantly more likely than white people to test positive for Covid-19 – and are at higher risk of hospitalisation and death when they are diagnosed – according to a new study that lays bare the racial disparities among millions of coronavirus patients across America.

The research, published on Wednesday by Epic Health Research Network Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF), analysed the health record data of about 50 million patients from 53 health systems across 21 states.

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UK coronavirus live: Boris Johnson admits there is not enough testing capacity; 3,991 new cases recorded

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PM says testing capacity will be 500,000 per day by end of October; close to 4,000 lab-confirmed new cases reported in UK

Scotland’s children’s commissioner has called for “clear and direct communication to children and families” from the Scottish government, amidst growing concerns that the rule of six impacts disproportionately on poorer children.

Parents have asked why it is that both grouse shooting and fox hunting can continue under the new restrictions, while it is against the law for children from more than two families to play together indoors or out, resulting in an effective ban on home-organised birthday parties and limits on free play in parks, as well as excluding those who can’t afford paid-for group activities.

Public health is the first priority, and we need the public to have confidence that the rules are fair ... The fact is, current regulations mean children can only invite all their friends to celebrate their birthday if their parents can afford to pay someone else to organise it.

A children’s rights impact assessment is essential in demonstrating the legitimacy of decision-making and should be a part of any significant policy changes, along with clear and direct communication to children and families so the legitimate reasons for the restrictions are widely understood.

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CDC director suggests masks are ‘more guaranteed to protect against Covid’ than vaccine – live

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Senior health officials appear to be offering conflicting timelines on when a coronavirus vaccine will be widely available to the American public.

CDC director Robert Redfield just told senators that the vaccine would not be widely available until “late second quarter, third quarter 2021.”

CDC Director Robert Redfield also told senators that he did not expect a coronavirus vaccine to be widely available to the American public until “late second quarter, third quarter 2021.”

JUST IN: CDC Director Robert Redfield says at a Senate hearing he sees a #Covid19 vaccine being "generally available to the American public" in the "late second quarter, third quarter 2021" pic.twitter.com/8w2904TGhN

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Bugs in NHS website add to UK’s Covid-19 testing crisis

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Many users report errors that prevent them booking a test or being told tests aren’t available

The NHS website used to book coronavirus tests is struggling to cope with the number of requests, adding yet more problems to the government’s troubled test-and-trace scheme.

Britons who attempt to book a test for Covid-19 online are directed – once they have passed screening questions to ensure they are entitled to the testing – to a purpose-built website where they can theoretically book either a home test kit or a walk-through or drive-through test. However, in practice, an increasing number of users are reporting errors on the site itself, which prevent them from even attempting to book a test.

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