Alok Sharma, the business secretary, has been tested for coronavirus after feeling unwell while delivering a statement in the Commons. Sharma appeared ill and to be sweating while he spoke about a bill. The parliamentary authorities are understood to have given the area a deep clean and MPs were at the time sitting at least two metres apart. 'This was done as a precaution,' a House of Commons source said
Continue reading...Category Archives: Coronavirus outbreak
How were medical journals and WHO caught out over hydroxychloroquine?
Studies under microscope after Guardian investigation reveals flaws with data from US company Surgisphere
- Governments and WHO changed Covid-19 policy based on suspect data from tiny US company
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Some scientific papers stop the world in its tracks. In the middle of a raging pandemic, a study in the world’s leading global health journal that seemed to prove President Trump wrong to laud the drug hydroxychloroquine for Covid-19 was always going to have a massive impact. It did. When the paper flagged a higher risk of death on the drug, trials were stopped all over the world, including one by the World Health Organization.
Now it’s in danger of unravelling.
Continue reading...Covid-19: Greece quarantines all passengers from Qatar flight
All 91 travellers put in quarantine after 12 test positive, illustrating risk of welcoming back tourists
Greece has been forced to confront the risks of restarting international tourism after authorities announced that 12 out of 91 passengers onboard a Qatar Airlines flight to Athens had tested positive for coronavirus.
The civil protection ministry responded by suspending air links to and from the Arab state until 15 June. All 91 travellers on the flight were immediately placed in quarantine.
Continue reading...Theresa May attacks Boris Johnson over Brexit and Covid quarantine plans
Former PM warns of security implications of no deal and threat to trade from travel restrictions
Theresa May has launched a double attack on Boris Johnson’s government, speaking in the Commons to first warn about the security implications of a final no-deal Brexit, and then against the coronavirus quarantine plans.
May, who has largely kept a low profile since returning to the backbenches, used prime minister’s questions to express worry at a lack of possible lack of intelligence and data sharing if the Brexit transition period ends without a formal agreement.
Continue reading...‘We were packed like sardines’: evidence grows of mass-event dangers early in pandemic
Research appears to back up stories of people who believe they got coronavirus at events UK government allowed to go ahead
The last major football match played in England before all sport was suspended because of the coronavirus crisis was the European Champions League showpiece between Liverpool and Atletico Madrid. It was a thrilling contest that transfixed 54,000 people under the floodlights of Anfield.
But now that match, along with many other mass events that the government allowed to go ahead as the pandemic spread in March, is coming under renewed scrutiny as evidence grows of the lethal danger to which people were exposed. They include rugby matches, horse races, musical concerts and dog shows attended, in total, by hundreds of thousands of Britons.
Continue reading...Women picking fruit for UK supermarkets ‘facing new forms of exploitation’
As Covid-19 causes workforce shortages, UN urged to urgently investigate worsening conditions in Spain’s strawberry industry
Women picking strawberries in Spain for UK supermarkets are facing new forms of exploitation, unions and lawyers warn, as the industry is hit by labour shortages caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
This week a coalition of rights groups and lawyers have appealed to the United Nations to urgently investigate allegations of deteriorating working conditions and a lack of protection for workers against Covid-19 infection.
Continue reading...Morrison government to offer $25,000 grants to help build and renovate homes
The homebuilder scheme will run between June and December and aims to create a pipeline of construction work
The Morrison government will fund grants worth $25,000 for eligible singles and couples planning to build or renovate homes between June and the end of December, with the uncapped program estimated to cost taxpayers $688m.
With the March quarter national accounts indicating that Australia has entered the first recession in nearly three decades, the new tranche of economic stimulus designed to create a pipeline of work for the construction sector will be unveiled by the Coalition on Thursday.
Continue reading...Obesity and coronavirus: how can a higher BMI increase your risk?
Experts call for more weight loss treatment in UK as studies show obese people are more vulnerable
Less than a year ago, Boris Johnson was taking a stand. Milkshakes, he said, should not be taxed.
“If we want people to lose weight and live healthier lifestyles, we should encourage people to walk, cycle and generally do more exercise. Rather than just taxing people more, we should look at how effective the so-called ‘sin taxes’ really are, and if they actually change behaviour.”
Continue reading...Spain rekindles a radical idea: a Europe-wide minimum income
Podemos leader enlists Portugal and Italy to lobby for policy as depression looms for coronavirus-ravaged southern Europe
It’s been proposed, probed and pushed to the margins of the European Union for more than two decades. Now, as Europe reels from tens of thousands of coronavirus deaths and millions of lost jobs in the worst recession for generations, ministers from Spain, Italy and Portugal say the time has come to revive a radical idea: a pan-EU minimum income.
“This is the moment for debates about social protection,” Pablo Iglesias, Spain’s deputy prime minister for social rights and leader of Podemos, told the Guardian. “Anyone who finds themselves in a vulnerable situation should have access to protection mechanisms that allow them to fill their fridge and care for their family.”
Continue reading...How to solve the UK’s transport problem in the time of coronavirus – video
Those who can, should go back to work, Boris Johnson has said. But how will people get to work safely? If we take public transport, will there be enough space to physically distance? If we take the car, will the roads cope with all the extra traffic? Josh Toussaint-Strauss tries to figure out some answers, with the help of Peter Walker and Matthew Taylor
Continue reading...Governments and WHO changed Covid-19 policy based on suspect data from tiny US company
Surgisphere, whose employees appear to include a sci-fi writer and adult content model, provided database behind Lancet and New England Journal of Medicine hydroxychloroquine studies
The World Health Organization and a number of national governments have changed their Covid-19 policies and treatments on the basis of flawed data from a little-known US healthcare analytics company, also calling into question the integrity of key studies published in some of the world’s most prestigious medical journals.
A Guardian investigation can reveal the US-based company Surgisphere, whose handful of employees appear to include a science fiction writer and an adult-content model, has provided data for multiple studies on Covid-19 co-authored by its chief executive, but has so far failed to adequately explain its data or methodology.
Continue reading...Cafe culture returns to France after lockdown – in pictures
In Paris, contented customers sit outside cafes and sip their morning espressos for the first time in 11 weeks. There are, however, strict rules: bars and restaurants have permission to sprawl across pavements but tables must be 1m apart. In the rest of France, customers can now be served inside while maintaining the same distance
Continue reading...We should have done more, admits architect of Sweden’s Covid-19 strategy
Anders Tegnell says there was ‘potential for improvement’ in country’s strategy to fight pandemic
Sweden’s chief epidemiologist and the architect of its light-touch approach to the coronavirus has acknowledged that the country has had too many deaths from Covid-19 and should have done more to curb the spread of the virus.
Anders Tegnell, who has previously criticised other countries’ strict lockdowns as not sustainable in the long run, told Swedish Radio on Wednesday that there was “quite obviously a potential for improvement in what we have done” in Sweden.
Continue reading...Fighting cyclones and coronavirus: how we evacuated millions during a pandemic
Bangladesh has battled the twin perils of a super-cyclone and Covid-19. We can offer lessons for others facing similar dangers
There was no time to lose when Cyclone Amphan began forming over the Indian Ocean in May.
But shelters are not built with social distancing in mind in Bangladesh and the country faced a challenge: how to move 2.4 million people from the destructive path of the storm without delivering them into an even greater danger – Covid-19.
Continue reading...Unhappy hour: London’s West End during lockdown – in pictures
British theatre teeters on the brink of total collapse and restaurants, pubs and cinemas are yet to reopen. Photographer Martin Godwin takes a stroll through an eery West End
Continue reading...Coronavirus live update: Josh Frydenberg says Australia’s economy in recession as GDP falls 0.3% in March quarter – latest news
ABS reports growth slowed to 1.4% through the year as industrial relations roundtables prepare an agenda to regrow the jobs lost during Covid-19. Follow live
- ABS releases latest national accounts
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Linda Burney and Mark Dreyfus has put out a statement, calling for clear targets to address the over-representation of First Nations people in Australian’s prison systems, and child removal.
Here is part of it:
I doubt we’ll be seeing ‘back solidly in the red’ mugs for sale anytime soon though.
Coronavirus live news: India evacuates Covid-19 patients ahead of cyclone as Brazil deaths pass 30,000
Yemen aid funding falls short by US$1bn; Zoom profits double; global cases pass 6.3m. Follow the latest updates
- India evacuates 100,000 from homes, virus hospital ahead of cyclone
- Brazil deaths pass 30,000 after record daily rise
- China withheld data on coronavirus from WHO, recordings reveal
- Global report: Germany eases travel ban and cafe culture returns to Paris
- Coronavirus latest: at a glance
China reported one new coronavirus case and four new asymptomatic Covid-19 cases in the mainland on 2 June, the country’s health commission said.
The National Health Commission said the one confirmed case was imported involving a traveller from overseas. Mainland China had five confirmed cases, all of which were imported, and 10 asymptomatic cases for 1 June.
China does not count asymptomatic patients, those who are infected with the coronavirus but not exhibiting symptoms, as confirmed cases.
Total number of infections to date in the mainland stands at 83,021. The death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
Dan Collyns brings you this action-packed update from Bolivia:
“Thanos is beating us” warned a Bolivian government minister in a live televised press conference on Monday as he called for his compatriots to comply with sanitary measures and lockdown restrictions amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Mientras tanto, en bolivia pic.twitter.com/5VPR4sDoX3
Continue reading...Brazil poised to overtake Italy as country with third-highest death toll – as it happened
Sweden death rate now higher than France; Pakistan records largest single day rise in new infections; global deaths pass 380,000. This blog is now closed
We’ve launched a new blog at the link below:
Related: Coronavirus live news: Germany reveals major stimulus plan as global cases grow by 100,000 a day
At least three people were reported dead as coronavirus-hit Mumbai appeared to escape the worst of Cyclone Nisarga Wednesday, the first severe storm to threaten India’s financial capital in more than 70 years, AFP reports.
The city and its surrounds are usually sheltered from cyclones - the last deadly storm to hit the city was in 1948. Authorities had evacuated at least 100,000 people, including coronavirus patients, from flood-prone areas in the states of Maharashtra and Gujarat ahead of Nisarga’s arrival.
Continue reading...‘How did we get here?’: Trump has normalised mayhem and the US is paying the price
More than 100,000 have died in a pandemic and troops are on the streets. The rate of fresh affronts has outpaced the ability to digest them
The sheer tumult of the Trump era, the unceasing torrent of events that were unthinkable even hours before, has left a nation constantly off balance, unable to find its bearing and grasp how far it has traveled.
The developments of the past 24 hours were a reminder of how slippery the downward slope has been.
Continue reading...Health experts cast doubt on UK hopes for holiday ‘air bridges’
Agreements to exempt tourists from coronavirus quarantine restrictions are complicated
Public health experts and officials have warned that the idea of “air bridge” links between the UK and overseas holiday destinations may prove impossible this summer, amid continued concern over how they could operate safely.
A number of Conservative MPs are pushing for air bridges – mutual agreements with other countries to allow travellers to fly in and out without coronavirus quarantine restrictions – ahead of the imposition of the UK’s 14-day quarantine system next week.
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