Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak

Swedes rapidly losing trust in Covid-19 strategy, poll finds

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Political parties demand Sweden’s strategy be reviewed before next election in 2022

Swedes are losing trust in authorities’ handling of the coronavirus, as the man behind the country’s light-touch approach called lockdowns a form of madness and political parties demanded the Swedish strategy be reviewed before the next election in 2022.

An Ipsos survey this week for the Dagens Nyheter newspaper showed confidence in the country’s management of Covid-19 had fallen 11 points to 45% since April, with backing for the national public health agency down 12 points.

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Coronavirus Australia update: NT blocks people from Covid hotspots and Virgin Australia bidder Cyrus Capital pulls out – live news

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State’s chief minister says people from areas with spikes in cases will be quarantined at their own cost; Bain Capital remains only bidder for embattled airline. Follow live

Queensland Attorney-General Yvette D’Ath spoke to media earlier, urging residents to comply with quarantine orders.

Although we are so fortunate in Queensland to have so few active cases, the fact is, as of today, we have almost 3,000 people in people on quarantine orders. About 880 of that people are in hotels but over 2,000 are quarantining in their homes.

It is absolutely critical that those people remain at home for the 14 days that they are quarantining, that they are not allowing people into their homes and they are not leaving their homes for any reason other than to be tested for Covid.

In response to a twelve-year-old student at Camden High School in NSW testing positive to Covid-19, the state’s health department has set up an additional Covid pop-up testing clinic at Camden Hospital.

The clinic will have walk-in testing with no bookings required and the clinic will be open over the next three days between 10am and 4pm.

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Coronavirus live news: Bolsonaro says he may have had coronavirus as cases rise in 27 US states

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Mike Pence to hold first coronavirus task force briefing in weeks on Friday; Texas pauses next phase of reopening; Brazil registers 39,483 new cases; Follow the latest updates

Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian from Wellington:

It was a case of “plenty of room at the inn” for a hotel in a New Zealand ski resort town during the country’s strictest weeks of Covid-19 lockdown, with eight babies born there due to a lack of local maternity facilities.

The hotel, the Ramada at Remarkables Park in Queenstown, accommodated parents, babies and their midwives free of charge while the births happened, according to the website Stuff.

“Our ‘Ramada babies’ will always be welcome here and we look forward to them visiting in future." - Ramada Suites by Wyndham Remarkables Park Queenstown Manager Suzanne Pentecost.#RamadaSuitesbyWyndhamRemarkablesParkQueenstown

Read more: https://t.co/JC22As58al pic.twitter.com/hUvKmxtXkE

Steven Morris, Helen Pidd and Archie Bland report:

A major incident was declared after tens of thousands of people defied pleas to stay away and descended in their droves on beaches in Bournemouth and other stretches of the Dorset coast.

Related: Major incident declared as people flock to England's south coast

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Coronavirus live news: global death toll exceeds 490,000; soldiers sent to Italian town amid tension over new outbreak

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WHO needs $31.3bn over 12 months for vaccines; France plans 1.3m tests to find ‘hidden clusters’; Mike Pence to hold first taskforce briefing in weeks

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has offered to help hospitals in other states struggling to cope with Covid-19 cases.

He also criticised states that reopened their economies before getting the virus under control, saying there was “undeniable, irrefutable evidence” those states made a mistake.

The global death toll has passed 490,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.

The figure has reached 490,632 with the US accounting for 124,509 fatalities, the highest of any country.

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Fourth time lucky: Denmark’s PM postpones wedding for third time

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EU summit intervenes to thwart Mette Frederiksen’s plan to marry her very patient ‘fantastic man’

Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, thought she had finally found a date for her wedding, but has now had to postpone it for a third time due to an EU summit, she said on Thursday.

Many a wedding plan has been upended by the Covid-19 pandemic and it seems not even world leaders are immune.

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Major incident declared as people flock to England’s south coast

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Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council says services are ‘completely overstretched’ as visitors defy advice to stay away

A major incident was declared after tens of thousands of people defied pleas to stay away and descended in their droves on beaches in Bournemouth and other stretches of the Dorset coast.

The local authority, BCP council – covering Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole – said it was forced to instigate a multi-agency emergency response to tackle issues ranging from overcrowding on the beaches, traffic gridlock and violence. Security guards had to be used to protect refuse collection teams.

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‘He’s like a child’: Biden attacks Trump’s coronavirus response – video

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Joe Biden on Thursday travelled to must-win Pennsylvania to attack Donald Trump for what the former vice-president characterised as trying to gut healthcare protections during a pandemic. Biden, who was born in the Pennsylvania rust-belt city of Scranton, has mostly stayed put in his Delaware home in recent months amid coronavirus concerns but has slowly resumed some campaigning. He headed to Lancaster to try to weaken the Republican president's standing with swing-state voters

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Trump administration sent $1.4bn in stimulus checks to dead people

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US Government Accountability Office said almost 1.1 million dead people received payments of about $1,200 each

The Trump administration sent almost $1.4bn in coronavirus stimulus payments to dead people, according to its own watchdog’s report.

In the report released on Thursday, the US Government Accountability Office (USGAO) said almost 1.1 million dead people received payments of about $1,200 each, as of 30 April.

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Huge crowds on England’s south coast as people flock to beaches – video

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Thousands of people defied advice to stay away from beaches and flocked to the south coast of England as the country experiences a bout of exceptionally hot weather. The masses forced Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole council to declare a major incident as services were 'completely overstretched'

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Coronavirus UK: are cases rising or falling near you?

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Latest updates: how has Covid-19 progressed where you live?

The map shows local authorities where the number of cases has increased week-on-week and where it has fallen. Some of this is due to natural fluctuations, especially in areas where there are very few cases, and so a rise from 1 to 2 is a doubling. Increased testing also means that more cases may be being detected than previously, although the impact of this between one week and the next is likely to be slight.

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Coronavirus live news: cases surge in Europe since lockdown easing, says WHO

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Cases worldwide growing by 1m per week; Latin American death toll expected to reach 390,000 by October; Texas hospitals near capacity; volunteers receive first doses of experimental vaccine

Guardian analysis of coronavirus data, in combination with the University of Oxford’s coronavirus government response tracker, has identified that 10 of the 45 most badly-affected countries are also among those rated as having a “relaxed response” to the pandemic, underlining the mitigating impact of effective government public health policies. You can read the Guardian investigation here.

The countries include the US - which is experiencing its largest increase in coronavirus cases since April; Iran, Germany and Switzerland - two European countries where the R rate has risen above one this week [...]

A country has been classed as being “relaxed” if its stringency index score is under 70 out of 100, according to the latest data from the University of Oxford’s tracker. The tracker assesses countries’ public information campaigns, containment measures and closures to give them a score out of 100 on their stringency index.

More on the rise of cases in Israel.

With 532 new infections reported by the health ministry in the past 24 hours, Israel has seen the emergence of a number of hotspots including in the Sea of Galilee resort of Tiberias, as well as Tel Aviv and Jerusalem – the highest daily total in more than two months.

Related: Israel brings back tracking system amid surge in Covid-19 cases

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Viruses do not take breaks. The world can learn from how the DRC is beating Ebola

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The African conflict zone has shown resilience and resourcefulness – and leaders tackling Covid-19 should heed its example

The Ebola outbreak in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has ended. Thursday marked 42 days since the last person with Ebola was discharged from care, double the maximum length of time it takes for symptoms to appear. Nearly two years of hard work and leadership by the communities in DRC has paid off, with the end of the first Ebola outbreak in a conflict zone.

It’s a time for celebration but not complacency. Viruses do not take breaks. DRC’s 10th Ebola outbreak may have come to a close but an 11th, in the north-west part of the country, was detected on 1 June. Cases are appearing 240km away from Mbandaka, the centre of this latest outbreak.

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Michael Eavis: Glastonbury could go bankrupt if it can’t be staged in 2021

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Exclusive: Founder says another cancellation would ‘be curtains’ for festival and has hopes for testing scheme, with daughter Emily saying they will ‘mutate to survive’

Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis fear they could be in serious financial danger if the festival was cancelled again due to coronavirus.

Speaking exclusively to the Guardian to mark the festival’s 50th anniversary, Michael said: “We have to run next year, otherwise we would seriously go bankrupt … It has to happen for us, we have to carry on. Otherwise it will be curtains. I don’t think we could wait another year.”

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How Trump has defied science on coronavirus – video explainer

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Donald Trump told thousands of supporters at a rally in Oklahoma he wanted to slow down testing for Covid-19 – despite experts saying the opposite.

From masks to 'miracle' treatments, the Guardian's Maanvi Singh looks back at how the US president has long been contradicting and defying science during the coronavirus outbreak and the impact that has had on the country's handling of the pandemic

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Israel brings back tracking system amid surge in Covid-19 cases

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Knesset votes to approve bill authorising domestic security agency to track infections

Israel is experiencing an alarming surge in coronavirus cases, which has prompted the government to approve reimposing a controversial tracking system administered by the country’s domestic security agency, the Shin Bet, over the reported objections of the agency.

Cases in the country have surged again after Israel eased restrictions at the end of May – a move that coincided with the Shavuot holiday, when people crowded beaches on both the Mediterranean and the Sea of Galilee.

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Revealed: countries facing coronavirus rise as lockdown relaxed

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Of the 45 countries to have recorded more than 25,000 coronavirus cases to date, 21 currently have relaxed responses to the pandemic. Of these, 10 are reporting a rising number of cases

Ten countries currently facing serious increases in coronavirus infections are among those nations with less stringent approaches to managing their outbreaks.

Guardian analysis of coronavirus data, in combination with the University of Oxford’s coronavirus government response tracker, has identified that 10 of the 45 most badly-affected countries are also among those rated as having a “relaxed response” to the pandemic, underlining the mitigating impact of effective government public health policies.

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How Trump and his public health officials diverge on Covid-19

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The president and federal health officials often seem to abandon the appearance of unity when it comes to discussing coronavirus

Since the White House daily coronavirus briefings ended in April, Donald Trump and his federal public health chiefs often seem to abandon even the appearance of unity on dealing with the pandemic.

Their messages have diverged increasingly as Covid-19 is surging in many US states amid rapid reopening, setting recent records in Texas, Florida, Arizona and California. Even as the previous world hotspot, New York, improves, America in total now exceeds 2.3m cases and 121,000 deaths.

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Uruguay and Paraguay buck Latin America coronavirus trend

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Despite sharing borders with Brazil, small countries can claim victory against virus

Latin America has become the new centre of the worldwide coronavirus pandemic but two small countries, Uruguay and Paraguay, have bucked the regional trend and can claim a near total victory against the virus.

Though they are strangely dissimilar – Uruguay is a progressive enclave with the lowest poverty index in Latin America, while Paraguay has poverty estimates of 30-50% and is rife with corruption – both nations have kept their coronavirus death rates surprisingly low.

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Australian drugmakers hit by critical shortages at height of pandemic, inquiry hears

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Evidence given to parliamentary committee sparks new calls to develop national capability to manufacture medicines and key supplies

Australian companies were “shocked” to experience price-gouging and had trouble accessing critical supplies to make medicines and personal protective equipment at the height of the pandemic, a parliamentary committee has been told.

It has prompted fresh calls for Australia to build up its ability to manufacture critical drugs “without reliance on opaque and fragile offshore supply chains”.

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Texas Covid-19 cases soar weeks after state lifts lockdown restrictions – video

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Texas reported an all-time daily high of 5,489 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, weeks after the state became one of the earliest in the US to ease its coronavirus lockdown measures. The significant increase in cases has left hospitals in Houston near capacity, with some adult ICU patients treated at Texas Children’s hospital

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