People should not be blamed for wanting to live normal lives but no one is invincible to coronavirus, including younger people, the WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said on Tuesday. Her comments came in response to a question about photographs showing people in close proximity to one another at a pool party in Wuhan, China, where the novel coronavirus outbreak began. She said similar photos could be seen from every country in the world.
Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak
Children forced to beg or work as hunger eclipses fear of Covid-19 in Yemen
Hikes in food, water and petrol prices adds to ‘triple emergency’, as coronavirus spreads unchecked and humanitarian aid dwindles
Families in Yemen are having to send their children out to work and to beg as concerns mount over rising food, water and petrol prices, a survey has found.
Despite coronavirus spreading undetected across the war-ravaged nation, data collected from more than 150 households in three provinces of southern Yemen found that respondents were more worried about going hungry than contracting Covid-19. The International Rescue Committee (IRC), which led the survey, found nearly two-thirds (62%) of respondents reported being unable to afford food and drinking water. Prices for sugar and vegetable oil have jumped by more than 25% in the past year.
Continue reading...I witnessed the horror of HIV 30 years ago. Here’s how we can conquer a pandemic | Cleve Jones
The danger and politicization of Covid-19 mirrors the HIV/Aids crisis. But there is hope, writes LGBT organizer Cleve Jones
As the coronavirus rages across America, we would do well to remember the lessons, and victories, of the fight against HIV/Aids.
Thirty years ago this summer, we were one decade into the HIV/Aids pandemic and more than 100,000 Americans had already lost their lives. The nation was politically and socially divided as the virus decimated gay men and people of color. Our nation stigmatized and abused the individuals, families and communities who were suffering the most.
Continue reading...Coronavirus Australia live update: NSW security guard at quarantine hotel in Sydney tests positive to Covid-19 – latest news
Victoria reports 17 more deaths; ADF says it offered hotel quarantine support to the state; Sydney bus drivers threaten to strike unless masks are made compulsory for passengers. Follow live updates
- NSW police investigate hotel security guard infection
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- Australian stats interactive; Vic cases map; NSW cases map; NSW hotspots list
- State by state Covid restrictions; Melbourne stage 4 restrictions; Vic stage 3 rules
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The security guard who appears to have contracted Covid-19 while working at a hotel quarantine facility later worked at Sydney’s Flemington market and Parramatta Local Court, but did not work at Bankstown Central Shopping Centre, as chief health officer Dr Kerry Chant indicated earlier. A previous case attended the shopping centre on 8 August.
The security guard work at the Marriott Hotel on 3, 4, 7 and 8 August, developed symptoms on 11 August, and was diagnosed late on 15 August.
The Senate committee examining the Morrison government’s response to Covid-19 heard from officials from the Department of Social Services this afternoon. They confirmed that Australian pensioners would not have their payments indexed until at least next March because of soft economic conditions.
In plain English, this means no increase to pensions.
It’s unacceptable that the government is allowing pensions to stagnate in the middle of the coronavirus crisis and the prime minister must outline what he is going to do to fix this.
Continue reading...‘Big surge’: Trump angers New Zealand with coronavirus comments – video
Donald Trump has called out New Zealand for its recent Covid-19 outbreak, saying places once hailed as a success story in the pandemic are now facing a 'big surge' in cases. However, New Zealand's prime minister, Jacinda Ardern said there was 'no comparison' between the situation in her country and that in in the US
- Trump calls out NZ’s Covid surge on day it records nine new cases
- Alarm over Covid case rates in 19 European countries
South Korea warns it is on brink of new Covid crisis as church linked to outbreak
More than 400 infections traced to Seoul church, whose leader has tested positive
South Korea has warned that it is on the brink of a new coronavirus crisis and could introduce stricter controls after a resurgence in cases, including hundreds linked to a church in Seoul.
The country reported 246 new Covid-19 infections on Tuesday, raising its total to 15,761, including 305 deaths, according to the Korea Centres for Disease Control and Prevention [KCDC].
Continue reading...Bernie Sanders slams Trump at DNC: ‘Nero fiddled while Rome burned. The president golfs’ – video
In his convention remarks, the Vermont senator Bernie Sanders strongly urged his supporters to vote for Joe Biden in the November election, warning that Trump represents a severe threat to US democracy. “Our great nation is now living in an unprecedented moment,” Sanders said, describing this election as the “most important in the modern history of this country”
Continue reading...Hotel quarantine linked to 99% of Victoria’s Covid cases, inquiry told
Dr Charles Alpren confirms more than 90% of cases since the end of May are linked to Rydges and almost all the others to Stamford Plaza
- Follow our live blog
- Australian stats interactive; Vic cases map
- State by state Covid restrictions; Melbourne stage 4 restrictions; Vic stage 3 rules
The vast majority of the cases of Covid-19 in Victoria can be traced back to a single family that returned to Australia in mid-May who were kept in hotel quarantine at the Rydges Hotel, an inquiry has heard.
The Australian Defence Force has also confirmed that an offer of personnel for hotel quarantine was specifically made to all states and territories.
Continue reading...Josiane Ekoli was a brilliant nurse and mother of five. Would the right PPE have saved her life?
As the government made excuses for not providing adequate equipment, Josiane refused to stop caring for the Covid-19 patients who needed her. Soon she was admitted to the ICU, too
After a busy night shift at the hospital, there was nothing the nurse Josiane Ekoli liked to do more than come home and wake up her sleeping children. Her 22-year-old son, Kenan, a finance worker, got the worst of it, because his bedroom was the closest to the front door. “Oh my days,” Kenan groans. “Every day, I’m hearing my name, without a doubt. She’s screaming my name. Kenan! Kenan! She knew I hated being woken up.”
On Saturday mornings, when Josiane had not come off a night shift, she had a routine: at about 9am, she would blast gospel music through the house. If that did not get her children up – she had five, but two of her sons had moved out – she would go into their rooms and start talking to them. At them, really. “Sometimes, she woke me up just to talk,” says Kenan. “I’d say: ‘Mum, couldn’t you wait until I was awake to have this conversation?’”
Continue reading...Kristin Urquiza blames Trump for her father’s coronavirus death in DNC speech – video
Urquiza, whose father died from coronavirus, addressed the Democratic convention to condemn Trump’s efforts to downplay the threat posed by the virus.
Urquiza said her father, Mark Anthony Urquiza, voted for Trump in 2016, and he listened to the president when it came to coronavirus
Continue reading...Worker at New Zealand quarantine hotel tests positive for Covid-19
New case is not linked to main outbreak in Auckland, which has so far infected 69 people
A new case of Covid-19 separate from the main cluster has been confirmed in New Zealand, with the infected person identified as a maintenance worker in a quarantine hotel in Auckland.
On Tuesday, 13 new cases were confirmed, with 12 relating to the Auckland cluster, which now numbers 69 in total.
Continue reading...UK coronavirus: Gavin Williamson apologises over ‘inconsistencies’ in exam grading process – live news
Exams regulator Ofqual announces all A-levels and GCSEs in England will now be graded according to teacher assessment following similar moves in Wales, NI and Scotland
- Boris Johnson urged to intervene as exam results anger escalates
- Ofqual ‘blindsided’ government by revoking A-level appeals process
- Follow the latest global live updates
- See all our coronavirus coverage
One of the groups that had been planning to take the UK government to court over exam grades has said it is dropping its legal action, following the U-turn. Jo Maugham QC, the director of the Good Law Project, tweeted:
Statement on Government A Level U-turn pic.twitter.com/wEWYElgCil
Mary Curnock Cook, the former chief executive of Ucas, said the government must announce immediately that the cap on university admissions will be lifted to accommodate the new grading system.
Many universities will have already filled their courses based on the grades published last Thursday. Speaking on BBC News, she said:
Decisions have already been made by universities about who they accept, who they don’t accept, who goes into clearing and so on. This change will mean that universities have to rethink completely.
Continue reading...Sweden’s Covid-19 strategist under fire over herd immunity emails
Anders Tegnell appears to have asked if higher death rate among older people acceptable if faster herd immunity achieved
Sweden’s light-touch approach to Covid-19 has come under renewed criticism after emails show the country’s chief epidemiologist appearing to ask whether a higher death rate among older people might be acceptable if it led to faster herd immunity.
Speculation about the views of Sweden’s leading public health officials was further fanned after it also emerged that Anders Tegnell, the architect of the country’s no-lockdown strategy, had deleted some of his emails.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Czech Republic reintroducing mask wearing; New Zealand postpones election
Czech Republic sees resurgence of coronavirus infections; India death toll passes 50,000; Japan GDP falls at annual rate of 27.8%
- Global report: Japan hit by biggest GDP fall in 40 years
- New Zealand delays election by month amid Auckland outbreak
- See all our coronavirus coverage
In the UK, the government has performed a juddering u-turn to say that this summer’s exam results will be based on teacher assessment rather than a controversial standardisation model that prompted fury from students who found themselves sharply downgraded on the basis of their schools’ previous performance.
My colleagues Richard Adams and Sally Weale have a write-up here...
Related: A-level and GCSE results in England to be based on teacher assessments in U-turn
Earlier we posted a link to an interesting El Pais piece which noted that in recent months the average age of those newly infected with coronavirus had dropped significantly. If you’re interested in this phenomenon and its consequences more broadly, take a look at this piece by our own Jon Henley from last week:
Unlike during the early months of the crisis in March and April, when older people accounted for the biggest share of cases, in France, Germany, Spain, the Netherlands and Belgium 20 to 39-year-olds now represent up to 40% of new infections...
The challenge for governments and health agencies, experts say, is to prevent the virus from spreading to more vulnerable populations. “There’s no reason to imagine it can be contained to just one age group, without affecting others, Pascal Crépey, an epidemiologist and public health expert, told Le Parisien.
Related: Surge in Covid-19 cases across Europe linked to young people
Continue reading...Test UK arrivals to cut Covid quarantine times, scientists urge
Testing people after seven days could also ‘increase compliance from public’, says one researcher
People arriving in Britain should be tested to cut quarantine time, scientists have urged, as speculation mounts that more holiday destinations will be axed from the air bridges list.
A growing number of countries are being added to the UK’s quarantine lists, with many Britons holidaying in France forced to make a frantic dash back before 4am on Saturday morning to avoid a 14-day period of isolation.
Continue reading...By delaying the New Zealand election Jacinda Ardern appears magnanimous and conciliatory | Bryce Edwards
Keeping the date while her own party’s polling was sky-high would have looked like self-interest; instead she has been praised for her leadership
At its heart, democracy is about participation. And yet, there have been serious questions about the quality and quantity of public engagement expected in this year’s general election, given the Covid-19 crisis overshadowing everything at the moment in New Zealand. Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has therefore made the right decision to delay the election by a month.
Voter turnout has been trending downwards in recent decades, hitting a low point in 2011 of only 69.6% of eligible voters. It’s plausible that in 2020 it could drop below even this. If the election were still to be held in just a few weeks, as originally scheduled, this would have been especially possible.
Continue reading...India’s invisible catastrophe: fears over spread of Covid-19 into poor rural areas
Country is entering a dangerous new phase of rising infections in small towns and villages with limited access to healthcare
Where better to seek sanctuary from a virus roaring through a crowded metropolis than a remote mountainside with views of the Himalayas?
This was the reasoning that prompted Lalit Upreti, 34, to leave the Indian capital, Delhi, where he works as a cook, two months ago to return to his hamlet Khankari in Uttarakhand, near the country’s border with Nepal. Here, he thought, his family would be safe.
Continue reading...Ministers criticised over plan to scrap Public Health England
Critics say PHE is being scapegoated for government’s failings during pandemic
Senior doctors, hospital bosses and public health experts have accused ministers of scapegoating Public Health England for their own failings over Covid-19 by planning to axe the agency.
The government’s decision to scrap PHE and merge it into a new body charged with preventing future outbreaks of infectious diseases produced a chorus of criticism on Sunday.
Continue reading...Victoria’s hotel quarantine inquiry to examine genomic testing in hunt for ‘patient zero’
Security companies and return travellers may also be called to give evidence at judicial inquiry this week
The judicial inquiry into Victoria’s hotel quarantine program will on Monday examine evidence from the Melbourne health institute whose genomic testing could shed more light on the source and spread of the state’s second wave.
The inquiry, called by the Victorian government after “unacceptable infection control breaches in hotel quarantine” and chaired by Jennifer Coate, confirmed on Sunday it had added an extra two days of hearings to its schedule for the week.
Continue reading...Toronto: strip club employee may have exposed about 550 people to Covid-19
Potential exposure took place just days after the Brass Rail Tavern, one of the city’s best-known strip clubs, was allowed to re-open
Health officials in the Canadian city of Toronto have warned that as many as 550 people may have been exposed to the coronavirus at a downtown strip club after an employee tested positive for the virus.
The potential exposure took place just days after the Brass Rail Tavern, one of the city’s best-known strip clubs, was allowed to re-open. The employee worked four shifts in early August, the city said in a statement, without detailing the capacity in which the employee worked.
Continue reading...