Conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to coronavirus have resulted in dozens of phone masts across the UK being vandalised in recent weeks. Theories about the dangers of 5G had already been circulating, despite regulators confirming that the radiation levels of the new technology are well within safe boundaries. So how did the conspiracy incorrectly linking it to 5G start? And is 5G really dangerous? We explain why 5G has nothing to do with Covid-19
Continue reading...Category Archives: Infectious Diseases
Has Sweden’s coronavirus strategy played into the hands of nationalists? | Gina Gustavsson
Talk of Swedish exceptionalism and wounded national pride has echoes of the forces unleashed in Britain by Brexit
Sweden has persisted with the strategy of coronavirus mitigation that the UK government eventually abandoned in March. The policy is widely supported by the public, even though the Swedish Covid-19 mortality rate is among the 10 highest in the world, at 240 per million population and steadily rising, and many of the nursing homes in Stockholm are now affected.
The typical explanation for this continued public support is that Swedes are trusting and unflappable. The country’s chief epidemiologist, Anders Tegnell, the public face of the Swedish response to the pandemic, is after all a dry scientist-turned-bureaucrat, not some populist politician trying to whip up nationalist go-it-alone emotion.
Continue reading...Coronavirus Australia live updates: Scott Morrison labels Twiggy Forrest’s comments on Covid-19 origin ‘nonsense’ – latest news
Sydney aged care home reports 13th coronavirus-related death as three more residents test positive, while Tasmania to lift north-west lockdown. Follow live
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WA premier Mark McGowan is due to give an update at 2pm Perth time today, which is 4pm on the east coast.
So, working backwards, we can expect an update from the prime minister on today’s national cabinet meeting some time between now and 4pm.
I’m going to leave you for the day. Thanks for reading. Calla Wahlquist will take over from here.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: Kim Jong-un reportedly appears in public
North Korean leader had not been seen for three weeks; Ireland and India both extend lockdowns, while global markets fall due to threat of US-China trade war
- Exclusive: US germ warfare lab creates test for pre-infectious Covid-19
- Where did Covid-19 come from? What we know about its origins
- Lingering and painful: the long road to coronavirus recovery
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The US president Donald Trump has offered an increasingly bleak picture for the US, telling a White House event:
Hopefully, we’re going to come in below that 100,000 lives lost, which is a horrible number, nevertheless.
The North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has made his first public appearance in nearly three weeks, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
N.K. leader reemerges from 20-day absence amid rumors over his health https://t.co/z4LhtCf7ox
Related: Kim Jong-un could be sheltering from Covid-19 pandemic, say US and Seoul
Continue reading...Jair Bolsonaro wants football to start up again despite Covid-19 deaths in Brazil
- President calls for resumption of football despite crisis
- Brazil has more than 5,900 deaths due to the coronavirus
Brazil’s president Jair Bolsonaro wants to see football competitions restart soon despite the country’s high number of coronavirus cases, arguing that players are less likely to die from Covid-19 because of their physical fitness.
Bolsonaro is one of the few world leaders that still downplays the risks brought by the coronavirus, which he has likened to “a little flu”.
Continue reading...Germany and Spain ease lockdown as Eurozone slumps 3.8% – as it happened
This blog is now closed.
We’ve launched a brand new blog at the link below. Follow me there for the latest coronavirus news from around the world, live:
Hello, Helen Sullivan with you now. I’ll have the blog for the next few hours, so please do get in touch on Twitter @helenrsullivan.
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
Continue reading...Coronavirus map of the US: latest cases state by state
• Coronavirus: world map of deaths and cases
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• Coronavirus – latest global updates
The number of confirmed cases of Covid-19 continues to grow in the US. Mike Pence, the vice-president, is overseeing the US response to the coronavirus.
So far, 80% of patients experience a mild form of the illness, which can include a fever and pneumonia, and many of these cases require little to no medical intervention. That being said, elderly people and those with underlying conditions such as diabetes or heart and lung issues are the most vulnerable. The coronavirus death rate in China for people 80 or over in the government’s study of more than 72,000 cases, was 14.8%.
Continue reading...‘This moment is leaving a mark on me’: framing Rio under Covid-19’s shadow
Nicoló Lanfranchi arrived in Brazil to make a film about traditional medicine and ended up charting a tragedy that acquired a deeply personal dimension
Photographing a funeral is never easy, no matter how professional the photographer, and even more so amid a pandemic. But for Nicoló Lanfranchi, capturing the burial of Covid-19 victim Elizabeth Baez, 82, which took place this month at the São João Batista cemetery in Rio de Janeiro, was especially difficult.
As he photographed the gravediggers in protective clothing with Elizabeth’s son Henrique, 49, the only mourner allowed, watching on from behind a mask, Lanfranchi thought of his own father, Piero. At 72, Piero was in intensive care with Covid-19 in a hospital in Voghera, in Lombardy, northern Italy – one of the worst-affected places on Earth.
Continue reading...More cases of rare syndrome in children reported globally
Nearly 100 cases of the unusual illness linked to Covid-19 have emerged in at least six countries
Doctors around the world have reported more cases of a rare but potentially lethal inflammatory syndrome in children that appears to be linked to coronavirus infections.
Nearly 100 cases of the unusual illness have emerged in at least six countries, with doctors in Britain, the US, France, Italy, Spain and Switzerland now reported to be investigating the condition.
Continue reading...World’s stock markets soar on coronavirus treatment hopes
Investors shrug off US growth gloom after promising data from remdesivir drug trial
Shares have soared on the world’s stock markets after investors shrugged off a deep slump in the US economy and pinned their hopes on a possible breakthrough in treatment for Covid-19.
Despite news that the longest expansion in US history came to an abrupt end in the first three months of 2020, financial markets were buoyed by an update from the American biopharma company Gilead Sciences on its experimental drug remdesivir.
Continue reading...‘So what?’: Bolsonaro shrugs off Brazil’s rising coronavirus death toll
Outrage at president’s response to news that more than 5,000 people have lost their lives
More than 5,000 Brazilians have lost their lives to the coronavirus – even more people than in China, if its official statistics are to be believed.
But on Tuesday night Brazil’s president shrugged off the news. “So what?” Jair Bolsonaro told reporters when asked about the record 474 deaths that day. “I’m sorry. What do you want me to do?”
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: US drug trial shows ‘clear cut’ effect, says top medic
Schools in Turkey to stay shut until end of May; Germans urged to stay home; Vietnam says it has had no domestic transmission for two weeks
- Revealed: the inside story of the UK’s Covid-19 crisis
- ‘So what?’: Bolsonaro shrugs off Brazil’s rising coronavirus death toll
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Another 31 people have died in Ireland and 376 more cases have been diagnosed, the country’s chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan has said.
One of the deaths reported on Wednesday involved a person in the 15-24 age group, the second in this category. Dr Holohan warned the number in intensive care units was too high as the prospect of a rapid easing of movement restrictions dwindles.
That is simply too high and we need to get that down further not only because it is about protecting occupancy but the lower the figure is it is a reflection of better protection of the public and lower levels of spread of the infection.
Bolivia will extend its lockdown against the pandemic until 10 May, the government has announced, though it is planning to relax rules in less affected parts of the country from the following day.
The president Jeanine Áñez has said Bolivia will move to a “dynamic” or “less rigid” quarantine on 11 May, allowing some people to return to work.
Opening the quarantine a little or closing it completely will depend on how the pandemic is being controlled in each region. The Ministry of Health will evaluate every seven days how the pandemic evolves in each region. On that basis, decisions will be taken to relax or harden the quarantine.
Continue reading...‘They are starving’: women in India’s sex industry struggle for survival
Exclusion from government Covid-19 relief has left many reliant on private food donations, as fears raised over protection from transmission after lockdown
Rasheeda Bibi has five rupees to her name. A worker in India’s sex industry, she lives in the narrow lanes of Kolkata’s Kalighat red light area with her three children in a room she rents for 620 rupees (£6) a month.
As a thunderstorm rages through the city, Bibi worries about the leaky roof of her small room.
Continue reading...Australia’s coronavirus social distancing rules explained: state by state guidelines
Scott Morrison has tightened physical distancing restrictions, but how they are applied will be determined by each state. Find out what’s illegal, and what happens if you break the law
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Since the pandemic was declared all Australian states have gone into various levels of lockdown.
Now that the country is cautiously optimistic that the curve has been flattened, the big question is how and when we will come out of isolation?
Continue reading...China bristles at Australia’s call for investigation into coronavirus origin
Beijing warns relationship could be damaged ‘beyond repair’ after Australian prime minister Scott Morrison cites ‘extraordinary’ impact of Covid-19
The Australian prime minister, Scott Morrison, has defied China and defended the “entirely reasonable and sensible” call for an investigation into the origins of coronavirus, as the international political fallout over the pandemic deepened.
China has been pushing back against criticism from other governments about how it handled the outbreak of Covid-19, which is believed to have started in Wuhan and which has now infected 3 million people worldwide and killed 200,000.
Continue reading...Polio campaign in Africa put on hold during coronavirus
WHO official warns of fresh outbreaks as jabs for 12 million children are delayed
Vaccinations for up to 12 million children to prevent the spread of polio in Africa will be delayed, in a major redeployment of polio eradication resources to fight the spread of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Polio prevention campaigns, which are vital to avert outbreaks, will be suspended until at least the second half of 2020, said Dr Pascal Mkanda, the head of polio for World Health Organization Africa. The decision will inevitably lead to a rise in polio cases.
Continue reading...France announces ‘progressive and controlled’ lockdown exit plan
Spain also plans ‘transition to normality’ despite rise in German Covid-19 infection rate after relaxation of restrictions
France and Spain have announced detailed roadmaps for gradual, phased exits from their strict coronavirus lockdowns, with restrictions to be loosened progressively and varying from region to region.
The French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, told parliament the decision to confine the population to their homes six weeks ago had saved 62,000 lives but it was now time to start lifting the lockdown to avoid economic collapse.
Continue reading...‘Calamitous’: domestic violence set to soar by 20% during global lockdown
Data from the UN population fund, outlining increases in abuse, FGM and child marriage, predicts a grim decade for many women
At least 15m more cases of domestic violence are predicted around the world this year as a result of pandemic restrictions, according to new data that paints a bleak picture of life for women over the next decade.
The UN Population Fund (UNFPA) has also calculated that tens of millions of women will not be able to access modern contraceptives this year, and millions more girls will undergo female genital mutilation or be married off by 2030.
Continue reading...Coronavirus live news: France to increase testing to 700,000 a week, says PM, as he outlines lockdown exit
Infections in Saudi Arabia pass 20,000; Germany’s infection rate back at 1.0; Turkey delivers medical kit to the US
- Coronavirus latest: at a glance
- France announces ‘progressive and controlled’ lockdown exit plan
- Germans urged to stay home amid fears infection rate is rising again
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The United States accounts for about a third of all confirmed cases.
The global total stands at 3,083,467, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. The US has confirmed 1,002,498.
Related: Coronavirus map of the US: latest cases state by state
The US has reached the milestone of one million confirmed cases, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
The US death toll is now over 57,000 people.
Related: Three months and 50,000 deaths: the defining Covid-19 moments in the US – timeline
Continue reading...Deaths in Nigerian city raise concerns over undetected Covid-19 outbreaks
Doctors in Kano state report surge in fatal cases of pneumonia among elderly
Nigeria’s president has announced an immediate two-week lockdown in Kano, the largest city in the north, after local reports of a big rise in deaths in recent days.
The federal government would deploy “all the necessary human, material and technical resources” to support Kano state, Muhammadu Buhari said on Monday night.
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