Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak

Coronavirus live news: Oxford vaccine trial on hold; Czech Republic reports 1,000 new cases a day for first time

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AstraZeneca Plc and Oxford pause vaccine trial again; Czech Republic battles surging spread; China stages celebration of beating virus

In the US, Iowa’s governor, Kim Reynolds, is refusing to enforce a White House coronavirus taskforce recommendation to close bars and require people to wear masks after Covid-19 infections in some of the state’s cities surged.

Related: Iowa refuses to close bars and require masks as Covid-19 cases surge in cities

Russia’s sovereign wealth fund will sell 32m doses of the potential Covid-19 vaccine ‘Sputnik-V’ to a top pharmaceutical company in Mexico, Russia’s second vaccine export deal, a source close to the deal said on Wednesday.

Russia registered its first vaccine candidate, developed by Moscow’s Gamaleya Institute, in August. Late-stage trials of Sputnik-V, due to involve 40,000 participants, were launched on 26 August.

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Covid risks making society more unequal than since early Victorian times | Gabriel Scally

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As life expectancy stalls and infant mortality rises, abolishing Public Health England will only make things worse

In the midst of Covid-19 it is easy to forget that the country is facing not just one, but two, very badly managed public health emergencies. The substantial and largely avoidable death toll in the current epidemic is undoubtedly due to a series of ill-informed and inept decisions about how the country should respond to its greatest public health crisis in more than a century. But the virus’s task was undoubtedly made easier by a serious deterioration in the health of the population over the past decade.

Since the beginning of the 20th century life expectancy in England has improved consistently. Until the last decade that is. As a result of government policies over the last 10 years improvement in life expectancy has stalled, and for women in the most deprived areas it has actually fallen. The widening gap between life expectancy in the best-off and worst-off areas is now almost 10 years for men and seven and a half years in women. Similarly, the infant mortality rate for England and Wales reached its lowest point in 2014 and has been consistently higher ever since. Across a whole range of other public health indicators, such as drug-related deaths, sexually transmitted diseases and childhood immunisations, the position has been deteriorating.

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‘Hands. Face. Space’: UK government to relaunch Covid-19 slogan

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Ad campaign promoting hygiene and social distancing will run across TV, radio, print and more

A new government campaign is being launched to remind people to wash their hands, cover their faces and keep their distance, in a bid to keep infections down as the winter months approach.

With the slogan “Hands. Face. Space”, advertising will run across TV, radio, print, social and digital display advertising, as well as on community media channels, the Department of Health and Social Care has said.

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Trouble in store as Covid canning craze leads to empty shelves and price gouging

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Americans turning to gardening during Covid crisis find themselves in a pickle when it comes to finding the right jars, seals and lids

It’s the time of year when gardeners are turning their ripe tomatoes into sauces and salsas and cucumbers into pickles. But a boom in gardening and preparing food at home during the coronavirus pandemic has led to a scarcity of supplies with which to preserve them.

From Maine and Vermont to Louisiana and West Virginia, gardeners have reported being in a pickle when it comes to finding the right size glass jars, the special lids to safely seal them, or the bands with which to screw them on. They’ve gone from store to store and some have given in to paying higher prices online.

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Crowds eschew masks at Trump rally as president mocks Biden over social distancing

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The president also chose to ridicule the mass protests against racism and policing, saying, ‘We call our rallies peaceful protests’

A packed crowd of hundreds gathered in North Carolina for a Donald Trump campaign rally on Tuesday, with many people forgoing masks, in defiance of state guidelines capping gatherings at 50 people.

Ahead of the president’s visit to Winston-Salem, the chair of the local county commission, a Republican, urged Trump to wear a face mask. The state has a mask requirement in place to slow the spread of coronavirus.

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Coronavirus: gatherings of more than six to be banned in England

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Government will announce emergency action to strengthen rules and aid police enforcement

The government has announced emergency action to try to stem a feared autumn resurgence of coronavirus, tightening laws to ban virtually all gatherings of more than six people in England.

Amid concerns that the current rules are both widely misunderstood and too difficult for police to implement, Boris Johnson will hold a hastily arranged Downing Street press conference on Wednesday to outline the new restrictions.

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Trump weighs spending own money on campaign as funds dwindle – live

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The race to succeed Bill de Blasio as New York mayor has a new potential entrant.

Kathryn Garcia, the city’s sanitation commissioner and one of de Blasio’s most trusted cabinet members, resigned on Tuesday in anticipation of a run.

Michael Cohen’s Trump book is out today and it may or may not be a coincidence that the president was exceedingly busy on Twitter this morning as NBC’s Today was broadcasting excerpts of in interview between his former lawyer and fixer and Lester Holt, of NBC Nightly News.

Related: Michael Cohen book details Trump's racism and toxic family dynamic

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‘I’m shocked’: businesses brace for long wait to reopen under Melbourne’s Covid roadmap

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Victoria’s path out of shutdown is contentious and uncertain for cinemas, beauty salons and hospitality venues

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Soon after the pandemic began the sign out front of the Thornbury Picture House read: “Cinema closed until real life doesn’t feel like a movie.”

Now the message is a little less whimsical: “Stay strong, Thornbury. We love you.”

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Brazil’s ex-president Lula condemns Bolsonaro over Covid in comeback bid

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Lula, who governed from 2003-2011, expected to run for president again at next election

Brazil’s former president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has accused Jair Bolsonaro of turning the coronavirus pandemic into a “weapon of mass destruction” in a high-profile intervention some have seen as the start of an attempted political comeback.

In a wide-ranging video manifesto – which allies, adversaries and analysts took as a signal Lula would seek to challenge Brazil’s far-right leader in the next presidential election – the leftist condemned Bolsonaro’s handling of a crisis that has killed more than 127,000 Brazilians.

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‘Not a game’: Europe pleads with young people to halt Covid-19 spread

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Health authorities across continent try to reach under 30s as cases among younger people rise

As the number of Covid-19 cases rises sharply in parts of Europe, health authorities from the UK to Spain are calling on young people to do more to halt the spread of the virus. This is how the situation looks in a number of major European countries and how it is being tackled.

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No 10 could toughen Covid rules for social gatherings in England

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Restrictions could be reimposed amid claims people have ‘relaxed too much’

Downing Street is considering whether to reduce the maximum permitted size for social gatherings in England following a sudden rise in coronavirus cases, and warnings that people have “relaxed too much” in their precautions.

No 10 is looking at the current guidelines, which allow up to six people to meet outdoors, whether in a public outdoor space, or in a garden, or 30 if it is an event, to see whether the limits should be reduced, a source said.

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School’s out in Kashmir: classes held in meadows amid closures

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Educators in the disputed region are fighting to keep pupils on track amid repeated lockdowns, curfews and internet blackouts

Asmat Jan, 15, practises her singing in a meadow, against a backdrop of Kashmir’s towering mountains. In front of her, around 50 other children squat in perfect, straight lines. A couple of adults hover nearby.

Education has gone open-air across the valley in Indian-administered Kashmir and this is one of the many makeshift community classes that have sprung up in response to the repeated closure of schools under two separate lockdowns, alongside a communication blackout in this hotly disputed territory imposed in August last year. While political restrictions have eased a little in Kashmir since India revoked the region’s special status and degree of autonomy, a brief reopening of education in February lasted only until April’s Covid-19 lockdown brought classes to yet another grinding halt.

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Melburnians face anxiety and depression during lockdown – video

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A Melbourne-based video production company  put a callout to people living in Metropolitan Melbourne under stage four restrictions and asked them to share video diaries of their feelings and experiences living under lockdown. They have made the resulting documentary available to view online. It details some of the anxiety people are feeling as their usual activities have been disrupted or cancelled altogether.

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Coronavirus live news: France confirms 6,544 new infections; Spain reports 3,168 new daily cases

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Latest figures bring France’s total cases to 335,524 and Spain’s to 534,513; concerns over spread of virus in Greek migrant camps

The UK government response to the coronavirus pandemic is on track to cost £210bn for the first six months of the crisis, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has said.

Reflecting the scale of the emergency since March, the National Audit Office (NAO) said ministers had instigated more than 190 measures in response to the crisis so far, including emergency job support, additional NHS funding, and business grants.

Related: Coronavirus bill has cost UK government £210bn, spending watchdog says

Canada is seeing a worrying increase in the number of people infected with the coronavirus as schools across the country are starting to reopen, a top medical official has said.

Chief public health officer Theresa Tam said an average of 545 new cases had been reported daily over the last week, up from around 300 in July. She told a briefing:

This is concerning and I want to underscore that when cases occur, including in schools, it is a reflection on what’s happening in the community.

This week is a really critical week.

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#NZhellhole: how Kiwis are hitting back at Trump’s Covid taunts

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In August the US president said New Zealand was seeing a ‘big surge’ in cases, but it only reminded people of how well they had done

Following comments by Donald Trump that New Zealand was dealing with a “big surge” of new Covid-19 cases, Kiwis have snapped back with some light social media trolling under the hashtag #NZhellhole, which has trended at number two on New Zealand Twitter.

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Up to £3.5bn furlough scheme cash may have been wrongly paid out

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Error and fraud rate for scheme estimated at between 5% and 10%, says HMRC chief

The government believes it may have paid out up to £3.5bn in wrong or fraudulent claims for the furlough scheme.

Jim Harra, the top civil servant at HM Revenue & Customs, said that his staff had calculated for the possibility that as much as 10% of the money might have gone to the wrong places.

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Spain is first country in western Europe to record half a million Covid cases

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Experts fear that France and the UK will follow the country’s rapid rise in new infections

Spain has become the first western European country to record more than half a million Covid-19 cases, logging a total of 525,549 infections as concerns also grow over the rise in cases in France and the UK.

The Spanish milestone comes amid a continuing surge in infections as millions of children begin returning to school after a six-month hiatus.

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Coronavirus cases rise steeply among young people in England

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Rates growing fastest among those aged 10-29, and decreasing in the older age groups

The health secretary, Matt Hancock, implored young people to stick to the rules as Covid-19 infections in the UK rose to their highest levels since early May.

It is not known why case rates are higher among young people, but England-level data shows they are rising steeply.

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India becomes country with second highest number of Covid cases

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With 4.1m cases, south Asian nation is now second only to US in terms of number of infections

India has surpassed Brazil to become the country with the second highest number of coronavirus cases, as the virus continues to spread through the country of 1.3 billion at the fastest rate of anywhere in the world.

India recorded more than 90,000 cases overnight, bringing the number of infections in the country past 4.2 million and overtaking Brazil, which with 4.1 million cases had been the second worst-affected country for several months.

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Coronavirus: seven Greek islands to be removed from England’s safe list

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Mykonos and Crete among islands from which travellers will have to isolate for two weeks from Wednesday

Seven Greek islands are being removed from England’s list of locations exempt from 14-day Covid quarantine, in a significant shift in the government’s travel corridor policy.

Speaking in the Commons on Monday, the UK transport secretary, Grant Shapps, announced that arrivals from the Greek islands will have to isolate for two weeks on their return to England from Wednesday at 4am but not those visiting the country’s mainland.

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