The education secretary has pledged that all children in all year groups in England will return to school in September. He said he understood parents' anxiety about the move, but that safety measures including protective bubbles would be in place to limit the risk of transmitting Covid-19
Continue reading...Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak
Nearly 1,500 deaths in one day: UK ministers accused of downplaying Covid-19 peak
Official toll passed a thousand on 22 consecutive days – far more than daily briefings said
- The UK’s darkest days of the coronavirus crisis
- Eight of the lives lost on UK’s worst day of pandemic
Ministers have been accused of playing down the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic after it emerged that more than 1,000 people died every day in the UK for 22 consecutive days – in stark contrast with daily tolls announced by the government.
According to an analysis of official figures, the darkest day came on 8 April as the country prepared for Easter under lockdown, when a record 1,445 people died from Covid-19 in 24 hours.
Continue reading...Anxiety in Beijing as officials battle new coronavirus outbreak
Chinese capital abruptly imposes lockdowns after fresh cases threaten official narrative of success
Zhang Le, 25 has been waiting for more than two hours outside a car park to be tested for coronavirus. Police officers stand behind a cordon, futilely shouting through loudspeakers for people not to gather in groups. When they are not looking, two women duck under the tape and jump the queue.
An officer tells Zhang and his colleagues, restaurant workers in a shopping mall, to go to the other entrance to the testing centre, set up on the outskirts of a park. They trudge over there only to be turned away again. Nearby, people stand or sit in groups as police try to herd them away.
Continue reading...Discretion saves lives: quick cleans and ‘Hotel Quarantine’ in Niamey
Understanding fear of stigma is essential in the battle against coronavirus in Niger’s capital. All photographs by Juan Haro for Unicef
It feels strange to cover the coronavirus crisis in Niger. Everyday life is taking its normal course, but you sense a strangeness in the air. It is manifested in the neighbourhoods, in the space between people. In a society where physical contact is part of the fabric of things, social distancing remains a challenge.
Continue reading...Mumbai discovers life isn’t so sweet without the workers it once ignored
Lockdown precipitated an exodus of day labourers and “wallahs” but as monsoon season breaks their loss is being felt
As the monsoon lashes Mumbai and black clouds darken the skyline, the city is in the grip of nostalgia for the men who used to keep daily life ticking as rhythmically and comfortingly as a Swiss watch. Men who are missing.
The men who cleared the drains of silt so that the rains don’t cause flooding and water-borne diseases such as leptospirosis. The electricians who came to fix breakdowns caused by wind and rain. The sanitation workers who used to spray neighbourhoods with mosquito repellent before the monsoon to prevent vector-borne diseases such as malaria, dengue fever and chikungunya. All are missing even though the monsoon officially arrived last weekend.
Continue reading...As UK lockdowns ease, fears grow of return to pre-pandemic crime and pollution levels
Carbon emissions, crime and air pollution all fell but are now starting to rebound
In a sudden realisation of what climate campaigners have been urging for years, flights were cancelled, vehicle use plummeted and the oil industry found itself in turmoil as lockdown restrictions took hold.
Continue reading...Australia coronavirus update: major cyber attack under way as Victoria records 12 new Covid-19 cases – live news
A sophisticated state-based actor is targeting all levels of government and companies in a range of sectors, PM reveals. Follow live
- ‘Australian organisations are currently being targeted by a sophisticated state-based cyber actor’, says PM
- Follow the global coronavirus live blog
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Also, the Five Eyes finance ministers met. Given what their operatives do, a meeting seems superfluous, but ok.
Today Australia hosted a call with the Finance Ministers of the “Five Eyes” nations – Australia, Canada, New Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States.
It was the first of what will be regular calls among the countries to discuss the economic issues associated with COVID-19.
I guess when you don’t have the Global Times, you have to be a little more overt in your silent diplomacy.
Coronavirus live news: Brazil surpasses one million cases
Country hits grisly milestone as WHO says pandemic is entering ‘new and dangerous phase’
- Brazil passes one million coronavirus cases
- ‘Everyone is scared’: anxiety in Beijing as officials battle new outbreak
- ‘I was preparing for death’: Covid-19 in England’s Bangladeshi community
- France: l’amour is in the air again as kissing returns on screen
- See all our coronavirus coverage
In Australia, authorities are watching the rise in coronavirus cases in Victoria closely as the state prepares to further ease restrictions from Monday.
Gyms, cinemas, indoor sports centres and concert venues are scheduled to reopen on Monday while cafes, restaurants and pubs will increase capacity from 20 people to 50.
Brazil has passed a total of more than one million coronavirus cases, and nearly 50,000 deaths, according to its health ministry data, in a new low for the world’s second worst-hit country.
Brazil has recorded 1,032,913 confirmed cases, second only to the United States, with 1,206 new deaths reported on Friday to take the total official fatalities to 48,954, the ministry said.
Continue reading...UK abandons contact-tracing app for Apple and Google model
NHS to switch to alternative design by tech giants, says Matt Hancock in latest U-turn
The government has been forced to abandon a centralised coronavirus contact-tracing app after spending three months and millions of pounds on technology that experts had repeatedly warned would not work.
In an embarrassing U-turn, Matt Hancock said the NHS would switch to an alternative designed by the US tech companies Apple and Google, which is months away from being ready.
Continue reading...Piloted in May, ditched in June: the failure of England’s Covid-19 app
How the government came to scrap its contact-tracing app in favour of Apple and Google’s
Designed to be a key component of the test, track and trace programme to forge a way out of lockdown, the NHS Covid-19 app has been beset by problems from day one – despite repeated claims to the contrary.
After a trial on the Isle of Wight at the start of May, the contact-tracing app was meant to be rolled out to the rest of England by the middle of the month. That soon slipped to some time in June. Then on Wednesday it emerged that we would have to wait until the winter. Now – after much behind-the-scenes scrambling, and head-scratching in Westminster – officials have decided to ditch the app entirely in its current form.
Continue reading...Government ‘backed both horses’ on contact-tracing app, says Matt Hancock – video
The health secretary has insisted the government 'backed both horses' in Covid-19 contact-tracing trials, after it abandoned development of its NHSX app. After the trial on the Isle of Wright revealed the app was highly inaccurate on iPhones, focus will turn instead to technology from Google and Apple
- UK abandons coronavirus app in favour of Apple and Google model
- UK coronavirus live: Hancock says 'we backed both horses' as he defends contact tracing app
Global report: Germany orders local Covid-19 lockdowns as Spain boosts tourism sector
Spanish government injects £4bn while Sweden study casts doubt on herd immunity
More than 8,000 people have been quarantined in fresh outbreaks of Covid-19 in three areas of Germany, while the most comprehensive study yet on immunity in Sweden showed very few people had developed antibodies.
As governments across Europe continue to ease their restrictions, authorities in North Rhein Westphalia, the southern Berlin district of Neukölln and the central city of Göttingen imposed local lockdowns in an effort to halt the spread of the virus.
Continue reading...Coronavirus mass surveillance could be here to stay, experts say
Use of invasive digital and physical tracking measures soars as the pandemic spreads
Extensive surveillance measures introduced around the world during the coronavirus outbreak have widened and become entrenched, digital rights experts have said, three months after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.
The measures have often been billed as temporary necessities rushed into place to help track infections, but governments have been accused of denting civil rights with the widespread use of techniques such as phone monitoring, contact tracing apps, and physical surveillance such as CCTV with facial recognition.
Continue reading...Coronavirus Australia update: Northern Territory to reopen borders in July as Victoria records 18 new Covid-19 cases – question time live
Michael Gunner declared the NT Covid-free and will prepare to allow domestic travel; person who attended Melbourne Black Lives Matter protest among new Vic cases. Follow live
- NT borders to reopen on 17 July
- Victoria’s cases rise for a second day
- Sign up for Guardian Australia’s daily coronavirus email
- Download the free Guardian app to get the most important news notifications
- Coronavirus Australia maps and cases: live numbers and statistics
That leads to this exchange:
Tony Smith: The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Prime Minister will resume his seat. The Manager of Opposition Business will resume his seat. The Prime Minister needs to withdraw that imputation.
Anthony Albanese to Scott Morrison:
My question is to the Prime Minister. Under this Prime Minister, Australia has entered its first recession in three decades. Australia now has an effective unemployment rate of 11.3%. How many unemployed Australians don’t have a job because the Prime Minister deliberately excluded them from JobKeeper?
No-one in this country is unemployed because of the Government’s responses.
People are unemployed in this country, people have been reduced to zero hours which is the same thing, people have been hit by the coronavirus pandemic!
Coronavirus live news: New Zealand reports another new case as Brazil nears 1m infections
Deaths worldwide near 500,000; US health expert says country is ‘still in first wave’; Argentinian president enters voluntary isolation amid coronavirus surge. Follow the latest updates
- Beijing coronavirus outbreak: city raises emergency level and grounds hundreds of flights
- Brazil cases near 1m
- New Zealand confirms one new case
- Spanish opera house reopens with concert for plants
- See all our coronavirus coverage
The hospitalisation of Honduras president with Covid-19 and pneumonia Wednesday has drawn attention to another country struggling under the pandemics strain as cases rise sharply in the capital, AP reports.
President Juan Orlando Hernández announced late Tuesday that he and his wife had tested positive for the virus. Just hours later he was hospitalised after doctors determined he had pneumonia.
From March to 7 June, Honduras confirmed 6,327 coronavirus infections. In the 10 days since, it added 3,329 more, a surge that has come after the government began a gradual reactivation of the economy.
The full story on Australia’s unemployment rate now:
Australia lost a further 227,000 jobs between April and May, resulting in a total loss of 835,000 jobs in seasonally adjusted terms since March and a 0.7% jump in unemployment to 7.1%.
Related: Australia loses 227,000 more jobs, taking unemployment to 7.1%
Continue reading...New Zealand reports fresh coronavirus case as more quarantine breaches emerge
Third case flew from Pakistan via Doha and Melbourne, says director general of health as further reports surface of ill-advised birthday parties and funeral gatherings
A fresh coronavirus case has been reported in New Zealand as officials scramble to contain the fallout from Tuesday’s embarrassing quarantine breach and reports emerge of people disappearing after leaving isolation early.
Thursday’s case – the third to emerge this week after a 24-day streak of no cases – was a man in his 60s who arrived in Auckland from Pakistan on 13 June on Flight NZ124, transiting through Doha and Melbourne.
Continue reading...Argentina’s president enters voluntary isolation amid coronavirus surge
The sudden spike in cases has also struck a number of current and former senior politicians
Argentina’s president Alberto Fernández has gone into voluntary isolation amid growing concerns over a surge of coronavirus infections, including several cases among the country’s political elite.
The decision to quarantine the president – whose popularity is riding high on his no-nonsense response to the pandemic – was taken due to the “significant increase in the circulation of the virus,” presidential doctor Federico Saavedra said in a statement on Wednesday.
Continue reading...Macron expected to ask UK to review 14-day quarantine rule
The French president visits No 10 for talks on Thursday during trip to commemorate WWII alliance
The French president Emmanuel Macron is expected to call on the UK to revisit its decision of imposing a 14-day quarantine period on visitors from abroad during his trip to the UK on Thursday.
Macron, on his first visit abroad since the coronavirus outbreak, is in London to commemorate the 80th anniversary of Gen Charles de Gaulle’s broadcast announcing an alliance with Winston Churchill, “the leader of the British empire”, and the launching of the French resistance.
Continue reading...Marcus Rashford ‘grateful’ for Johnson U-turn on free school meals – video
Marcus Rashford says he was 'shocked' at Boris Johnson's U-turn over providing food vouchers for some of England’s poorest families during the summer. Rashford told BBC Breakfast he was 'grateful' to the prime minister for the move, adding he would continue to fight for meals for children after the summer
- Johnson makes U-turn on free school meals after Rashford campaign
- Taking inspiration from Marcus Rashford
Americans reportedly find ‘loophole’ to violate Canada’s Covid-19 border closure
Officials investigating reports that US citizens are crossing border on pretext of visiting Alaska, only to stay in Canada
For some Americans, the prospect of visiting the Rocky Mountains without hordes of visitors cramming its picturesque trails and alpine towns, is so tempting that they’re prepared to risk arrest.
Canadian officials are investigating reports that American tourists are making covert forays into the country, violating a border closure imposed to slow the spread of coronavirus.
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