New Zealand leader Jacinda Ardern says while there was no timeframe on plans for a trans-Tasman travel bubble that would include Australia, the rise in Covid-19 cases in Victoria means it won't happen for some time to come. Once hopeful of including other countries in the Pacific region in the travel bubble, Ardern has confirmed New Zealand's borders will remain closed until the risk of coronavirus entering the country through visitors can be minimised. 'We wish Victoria all the very best as they continue to combat what is a devastating situation,' she said, 'but I think the reality for both of us is this is going to slow things down for us'
Continue reading...Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak
‘We have abandoned the poor’: slums suffer as Covid-19 exposes India’s social divide
Virus proves a reminder to wealthy of their reliance on impoverished workers, reviving calls for a slum revolution that will benefit all
Cooking, cleaning, and food shopping have been a shock to Anisa Agarwal. Pre-pandemic, married to a wealthy tile manufacturer, her life in Gulmohar Park in Delhi involved a cook, maid, driver and cleaner who came to her house every day.
But despite her total dependence on them, Agarwal, 44, has not allowed her staff to enter her home in four months.
Continue reading...Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria premier Daniel Andrews to announce more stage four restrictions as NSW reports 13 new Covid-19 cases – latest news
Premier to outline further details of state’s new lockdown, including business shutdowns. Follow all the latest news and updates, live
- NSW has 13 new cases
- Melbourne stage 4 restrictions explained; Victoria stage 3 restrictions
- Victoria cases map; NSW cases map; Australian stats interactive
- Sign up for Guardian Australia’s coronavirus email
NSW police have released information on the fines they have issued for social distance breaches:
Police have issued a total of 16 Penalty Infringement Notices (PINs) for non-compliance with Covid-19 Public Health Orders across the weekend.
The Business Council of Australia and the Australian Council of Trade Unions – not known for being on the same side of a lot of issues – have released a joint letter calling for a paid pandemic leave scheme:
Dear Attorney,
Coronavirus live news: world may never find ‘silver bullet’ Covid vaccine, says WHO
Covid-19 survivors have higher rates of mental ill-health, study says; Belgium sees ICU admissions double; Singapore to use electronic tags to monitor some travellers
- Iran death toll three times higher than admitted, says report
- Berlin protests against coronavirus rules divide leaders
- Russia claims to be ahead of rivals in vaccine race
- US coronavirus live - latest updates
- UK coronavirus live - latest updates
Here are the main headlines from our global coronavirus coverage so far on Monday:
About 1.5 million Italians - 2.5% of the population of Italy- may have already contracted coronavirus, nationwide antibody tests indicate, according to the Associated Press.
The figure, announced by health officials on Monday, is six times the number of confirmed cases in Italy’s official virus tally. The results — viewed with the country’s overall death toll of close to 35,000 —align with a 2.3% estimated mortality rate of the virus.
Inside Lebanon’s economic crisis – podcast
Scenes of economic despair are visible across Lebanon – from shops to homes, businesses to hospitals. Guardian journalist Martin Chulov discusses why the country is verging on financial collapse
Across all pockets of a country conditioned to hardship over decades of war and tumult, the effects of a catastrophic economic implosion were evident when the Guardian’s Middle East correspondent Martin Chulov took a road trip across Lebanon. Since March, the prices of most goods have nearly tripled, while the value of the national currency has fallen by 80% and much of the country has ground to a halt. Those who still have work are surviving month to month. Poverty is soaring, crime is rising, and streets are incendiary. The country has defaulted on one bond payment and a second is due soon.
Martin tells Rachel Humphreys about how government corruption and financial mismanagement have lead to Lebanon finding itself on the brink of financial collapse.
Continue reading...Two cruise ships hit by coronavirus weeks after industry restarts
Outbreaks of Covid-19 recorded on MS Roald Amundsen in Norway and the Paul Gauguin in Tahiti
Covid-19 has been detected on at least two cruise ships – one in the Arctic and one in the Pacific – just weeks after cruising holidays restarted.
At least 40 passengers and crew from the MS Roald Amundsen have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and authorities are trying to contact trace hundreds of passengers from two recent Arctic voyages the ship took.
Continue reading...Nancy Pelosi says she doesn’t have confidence in Dr Deborah Birx over coronavirus – video
US House speaker Nancy Pelosi says she has lost trust in Dr Deborah Birx, a senior scientist on Donald Trump’s coronavirus taskforce, after the US surpassed 154,000 deaths due to the virus. Pelosi criticised Birx's role in the White House's handling of the pandemic, claiming president Trump had been spreading disinformation about Covid-19, and Birx was his appointee
Continue reading...China sends Covid-19 testing team to Hong Kong, prompting surveillance fears
Health officials to perform coronavirus testing, the first time a mainland team has been part of city’s pandemic response
Seven Chinese health officials arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday, the first members of a 60-person team that will carry out widespread Covid-19 testing in the territory as it races to halt another wave of illness.
The initiative marks the first time mainland health officials have assisted Hong Kong in its battle to control the epidemic.
Continue reading...London risks losing its aura as a ‘fun’ place to work, economist fears
Capital could lose £178m in 2021 as companies decline to send all workers back to offices
Major cities such as London face more economic pain as some companies resist the government’s efforts to encourage workers back to their desks this week, economists have warned.
Pablo Shah, a senior economist at the Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), fears that the capital could have lost its aura as a “fun” place to work, particularly in the digital and creative industries.
Continue reading...NHS appeals for urgent plasma donations from Covid-19 survivors
Blood plasma containing coronavirus antibodies may help patients in any second wave
People who have recovered from Covid-19 are being urged to donate their blood plasma as part of an urgent appeal to help the NHS treat those who fall ill during a potential second wave.
The call follows news that the number of appointments booked each week as part of the ongoing NHS Blood and Transplant (NHSBT) convalescent plasma collection has dropped by almost half in the past month. There are fewer eligible donors due to the fall in new infections during lockdown.
Continue reading...Deborah Birx warns Covid-19 now ‘extraordinarily widespread’ in US – as it happened
- Birx says virus has taken a hold over large parts of the US
- GOP reportedly to ban media from Republican national convention
- Is US attorney general William Barr a danger to democracy?
- QAnon is finding a home in the Republican party
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We’ll be shutting down today’s blog shortly. Here’s a glance at today’s major news items:
The US economy could benefit if the nation were to “lock down really hard” for four to six weeks, a top Federal Reserve official said on Sunday, adding that Congress can well afford large sums for coronavirus relief efforts.
The economy, which in the second quarter suffered its biggest blow since the Great Depression, would be able to mount a robust recovery, but only if the virus were brought under control, Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve Bank, told CBS’s Face the Nation.
South Africa registers more than half a million coronavirus cases
Infections rise following easing of lockdown as government struggles to retain public trust
South Africa has registered more than half a million confirmed cases of Covid-19, health officials have said, as the government struggles to retain public trust amid allegations of widespread corruption, arbitrary decisions on restrictions and administrative incompetence.
Africa’s most industrialised nation was widely praised for its early response to the pandemic but criticism has since mounted as a strict lockdown was eased.
Continue reading...Coronavirus global report: ‘response fatigue’ fears as Mexico hits 9,000 daily cases
Many countries that believed they were past the worst are grappling with new outbreaks, says WHO
Mexico has recorded more than 9,000 daily coronavirus cases for the first time, as the country overtook the UK with the world’s third-highest number of deaths from the pandemic after the US and Brazil.
The surging numbers were reported as the World Health Organization warned of “response fatigue” and a resurgence of cases in several countries that have lifted lockdowns.
Continue reading...Does stage 4 ‘shock and awe’ in Melbourne mean we should have gone for elimination of coronavirus after all? | Gay Alcorn
Declaring a ‘state of disaster’ in Victoria gives police more authority, and hope that Covid cases can be contained within six weeks
Even the vast majority of Victorians who accepted stage 3 restrictions as necessary, if depressing, would have been confronted by what premier Daniel Andrews announced on Sunday. They were the tightest coronavirus restrictions ever imposed in Australia and among the toughest in the world.
Melburnians had just got used to compulsory mask wearing and now are to be confined to their homes from 8pm to 5am except for medical reasons or for essential work, at the risk of a $1,652 fine if they break curfew. Had this ever happened outside war time? There was no such curfew in New Zealand even in their “go early and go hard” response earlier this year.
Continue reading...Bolivians driven from pillar to post as Covid-19 overwhelms hospitals
Grover Ponce, 42, died after being shuttled between six different health facilities as his family watched in rising desperation
In the two weeks before he died from suspected Covid-19, Grover Ponce was shuttled between six hospitals, as his wife Paola Medina battled the labyrinthine bureaucracy of Bolivia’s health system.
Just days after he was finally admitted to La Portada hospital in La Paz, he had to be rushed to intensive care in another hospital in El Alto. But by then it was too late. He suffered two cardiorespiratory arrests and died on Sunday.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Victoria declares state of disaster and nightly curfew for Melbourne
Hundreds of ‘mystery cases’ have forced decision in Australian state; UK planning to avoid a second national lockdown; South Africa’s cases pass 500,000
- Victoria announces stage four coronavirus lockdown in Melbourne
- Masks recommended in more circumstances in New South Wales
- Global report: curfew in Australia’s second-largest city as Mexico racks up daily record
- See all our coronavirus coverage
Coronavirus infections in the Philippines surged past 100,000 Sunday in a troubling milestone after medical groups declared that the country was waging a losing battle against the virus and asked the president to reimpose a lockdown in the capital.
The Department of Health reported a record-high daily tally of 5,032, bringing the total confirmed cases in the country to 103,185, including more than 2,000 deaths, the Associated Press news agency reports.
In the UK, where police have broken up several large dance parties since the lockdown began earlier this year, a warning has been issued to people to stay away from an area in south-west England, where they have been forced to break up a rave attended by a “large volume” of partygoers.
Gloucestershire police sent out this tweet this morning:
Police are currently in the Forest of Dean near to Speculation Car Park dispersing a rave. People are advised not to attend the area due to safety and Covid risks. This will likely take some time to resolve this issue. pic.twitter.com/rtYrXSqWb3
Continue reading...Stage 4 lockdown in Melbourne a hammer blow to Covid-weakened Australian economy
Federal government may need to give financial aid to sustain Australia’s second biggest economy to limit flow-on effects throughout country
The strict new stage 4 lockdown announced by the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, along with the shutdown of certain industries to be unveiled on Monday, represents a hammer blow to the Australian economy.
They immediately invalidate federal Treasury forecasts released less than a fortnight ago and will require the prime minister, Scott Morrison, to tip buckets of money into Victoria if Australia is to avoid prolonging and deepening what is already an economic disaster.
Continue reading...‘Coronavirus has stolen our future’: young people’s despair as jobs evaporate
New graduates and school leavers across the UK have paid the price of lockdown, says survey
Young people across Britain believe their future has been “stolen” as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, with more than half fearing it has damaged their prospects.
Amid growing evidence that the pandemic is fuelling a generational divide, two thirds of 16- to 24-year-olds also said that their age group, loosely defined as ‘Generation Z’ will pay the economic price for a disease that has mostly affected older people, according to a survey by the Hope not Hate charitable trust, an anti-racism group.
Continue reading...Cramped workplaces, parties … the factors fuelling local Covid-19 spikes
What have resurgences around the world taught us about how local clusters emerge?
It is not always possible to pinpoint the origin of a local spike in cases, particularly in countries like the UK, where the disease is still circulating at relatively significant levels.
But in countries where overall caseloads are lower, and with rigorous test-and-trace schemes, it has been possible to pinpoint the factors that have sparked or fuelled local outbreaks.
Continue reading...Expect more lockdowns until low-paid workers are able to isolate without fear of poverty
Mayor of Greater Manchester Andy Burnham warns that dramatically shifting pictures of infection rates will continue to force local lockdowns
Last week we got a taste of things to come. As we head for winter without a Covid-19 vaccine, we will all need to get used to a new routine where, every Thursday, the latest round of local restrictions is announced. Greater Manchester was not the first and we certainly won’t be the last.
When the secretary of state for health called late on Thursday afternoon to inform me of his intentions, I was not surprised.
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