Category Archives: Infectious Diseases

Coronavirus live news: Germany goes into ‘lockdown light’ mode; global deaths pass 1.2m

Posted on by

Germans told to prepare for ‘months of restrictions and abstinence’; South Korea to fine people without masks; global coronavirus deaths pass 1.2m

Governments in Europe face a “very, very difficult situation” in controlling rising numbers of Covid-19 cases as their citizens grow weary with renewed restrictions on daily life, the World Health Organization’s top emergencies expert said.

“Clearly people are frustrated, and have every right to be frustrated, and they are fatigued,” Mike Ryan told a regular WHO news briefing in Geneva.

Footage of a pianist in Barcelona playing a rendition of the Bangles’ hit Eternal Flame amid the sound of explosions, wailing sirens and protesters has gone viral on social media.

Peter William Geddes, who was playing in Plaça Nova on 31 October, said as the violence escalated in the background he felt peaceful: “When I play I am very calm. No nerves.”

Continue reading...

Covid: how chilling projections prompted Johnson to lockdown

Posted on by

Opposition of Sunak melted away during quad meeting and PM sided with Gove and Hancock

Morgues in converted ice rinks, security guards outside overwhelmed hospitals to turn patients away, even municipal mass graves.

When Boris Johnson’s “quad” of senior ministers met on Friday, they were presented with a chilling prognosis of what would happen if they failed to take draconian action.

Continue reading...

What you can and can’t do in England’s new Covid lockdown

Posted on by

Which businesses will have to close, how many people can meet and more key questions answered

Boris Johnson has announced a four-week lockdown in England, following weeks of pressure from his own scientific advisers and opposition parties to introduce tougher measures to tackle coronavirus. The full details of the restrictions will be published early this week before a vote in parliament on Wednesday.

This is what we know so far.

Continue reading...

UK coronavirus live: Gove says lockdown could be extended; Starmer rejects union calls to close schools

Posted on by

Latest updates: Cabinet Office minister says easing depends on R value coming down; Labour leader says schools should stay open

Sir Desmond Swayne, one of the Conservative MPs most opposed to a second lockdown, told Sky News that the policy announced by the PM yesterday would have “disastrous consequences”. He said:

I’m worried about the disastrous consequences for unemployment, for wrecked businesses, for years of under-investment while we try and pay this off, when the reality is that the number of deaths for the time of year is normal and expected.

It is very difficult to believe scientists who tell you that there is a deadly pandemic taking place when there are no excess deaths beyond the normal five-year average.

Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, has called for schools in his region to close for a period during the lockdown to help drive down the virus. He was speaking at a joint conference with Steve Rotheram, the mayor of Liverpool city region, who also backed the proposal. Burnham said:

It’s my view, and it’s shared by Steve, that we do need to see a period of closure in our schools if we are to get those cases right down, and if we are to avoid a scenario where large parts of the north-west are simply put back in tier 3 coming out of this.

Continue reading...

Half of Slovakia’s population tested for coronavirus in one day

Posted on by

More than 2.5 million Slovaks took swab tests on Saturday, with 25,850 testing positive

Nearly half of Slovakia’s entire population took Covid-19 swabs on Saturday, the first day of a two-day nationwide testing drive the government hopes will help reverse a surge in infections without a hard lockdown.

The scheme, a first for a country of Slovakia’s size, is being watched by other nations looking for ways to slow the virus spread and avoid overwhelming their health systems.

Continue reading...

Johnson’s U-turn puts England under tough new lockdown

Posted on by

Rules will shut pubs, cafes and non-vital shops, while local reviews will take place after a four-week period

Boris Johnson performed an extraordinary U-turn on Saturday as he unveiled new month-long national lockdown measures across England, amid accusations that government indecision and delay will cost lives and livelihoods across the country.

With immediate warnings of the grave economic fallout and a mounting backlash among Tory MPs, the prime minister announced that a series of measures would come into force on Thursday to combat growing Covid infections. They will remain in place until 2 December.

Continue reading...

Add vitamin D to bread and milk to help fight Covid, urge scientists

Posted on by

Widespread deficiency shows that current government guidance on supplements is failing

Scientists are calling for ministers to add vitamin D to common foods such as bread and milk to help the fight against Covid-19.

Up to half the UK population has a vitamin D deficiency, and government guidance that people should take supplements is not working, according to a group convened by Dr Gareth Davies, a medical physics researcher.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Germany sets another daily case record as Europe passes 10m infections

Posted on by

England lockdown expected early next week; US passes 9m infections; Melbourne records no new cases or deaths. Follow the latest:

Ukraine announced a new high of 8,752 new coronavirus infections in the past 24 hours, the national security council said on Saturday, up from 8,312 cases on Friday.

Total infections stood at 387,481, it said.

Coronavirus is “running riot” across all age groups in the United Kingdom, says Prof Calum Semple, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies.

Speaking in a personal capacity, Semple told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme:

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: US sets world record for daily cases – as it happened

Posted on by

England lockdown expected early next week; US passes 9m infections; Melbourne records no new cases or deaths. Follow the latest:

This blog will wrap up shortly. Here the latest key developments at a glance:

Just a reminder that if you want to get in touch and share comments or tips, you can contact me either on Twitter or via email.

Continue reading...

‘It’s possible’: the race to approve a Covid vaccine by Christmas

Posted on by

At least three companies close to revealing results of phase three trials, but to be approved for use safety has to be ensured

The race for a Covid vaccine is reaching a crucial stage, with the glimmer of a possibility that one of the leading contenders will be approved by Christmas.

In an interview with the Guardian, Kate Bingham, who heads the UK’s vaccine taskforce, said the UK was in “a very good place”.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: US passes 9m cases; Italian cases jump by 31,000 in a day

Posted on by

Italy also records 199 further deaths; US record surge killing nearly 1,000 Americans a day; Moscow creates vaccination network

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Angela Merkel heckled in parliament; UK job retention scheme to end

Posted on by

Merkel said populists who call coronavirus harmless are dangerous; UK furlough scheme to end on Saturday; France reimposes national lockdown

As the row over the discharge of Covid-positive patients into Scotland’s care homes during the early days of the pandemic deepens, health secretary Jeane Freeman has insisted that a new report does not diminish government accountability, writes Libby Brookes, the Guardian’s Scotland correspondent.

The report – which concluded the risk of an outbreak linked to discharge of positive or untested patients was “not statistically significant” - prompted anger from opposition parties, care chiefs and unions, who argued that it failed to properly explain why dozens of patients who tested positive for coronavirus, along with thousands who went untested, were discharged from Scottish hospitals into care homes in April and May.

For relatives and families of people who have died in care homes during this pandemic, I want them to know really clearly that I am not saying that this report says there is no accountability here or that I think that report in any way offers them comfort. It’s a very technical report and it comes to a statistical conclusion but that doesn’t take away from the human impact of this virus…

Angela Merkel faced shouts and heckles in Germany’s parliament this morning as she outlined her government’s plans for a “soft” second lockdown, writes Philip Oltermann, the Guardian’s Berlin bureau chief.

From Monday, bars, restaurants, theatres, swimming pools and fitness studios will close for a month, and public gatherings be limited to two households or up to ten people. Unnecessary travel is discouraged and hotels advised not to host tourists. Schools, nurseries and shops will stay open, however.

Continue reading...

Cate Blanchett: ‘Covid-19 has ravaged the whole idea of small government’

Posted on by

In this extract from her essay collection Upturn, the actor considers the disruptions of the pandemic and the renewed fervour for social and economic justice

The other day I had to go into town for a dental appointment. I put on all sorts of lovely clothes as if I were going out to dinner and an opening night. The prospect of being out and about was both exhilarating and daunting. I so desperately wanted to be among people and in the city, but I’d also completely forgotten what an event was. The dentist did not seem surprised by my sartorial over-commitment – but then, I was not the first patient he had seen since lockdown.

As a person working in the arts sector, the lockdown was strangely familiar on one level – a lot of actors get stuck in a kind of limbo waiting for someone else to give them permission to do what they are good at. It was as if we were all waiting by the phone for our agent to call. It was also strangely unfamiliar because the community that holds us together, the audiences, as well as the changing of the shows and the new releases, were all put on hold too. The flow between us all was severely affected, and I was both heartened and horrified when it began to surface online. Heartened because the urge to express ourselves and the desire to communicate seems undaunted by anything. Horrified because the worst place to rehearse and perform is alone in the mirror, and sometimes the phone is just a mirror.

Continue reading...

Dr Fauci praises Australia’s coronavirus response and Melbourne’s face mask rules

Posted on by

America’s top Covid expert says Victoria lockdown and mask-wearing struck right balance between health and economy and he wished US adopted same mentality

America’s top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, has praised Melbourne’s response to the coronavirus, saying he “wished” the US could adopt the same mentality.

In an interview hosted by the University of Melbourne and the Melbourne-based Doherty Institute, Fauci said Australia was “one of the countries that has done actually quite well” in handling the virus.

Continue reading...

The graphs that show Australia’s achievement in stopping second-wave Covid outbreak

Posted on by

A visual comparison of the country’s epidemic curve compared with other nations

The Australian state of Victoria has achieved a remarkable reduction in Covid-19 case numbers after a lengthy period of restrictions.

To put this achievement in context – Australia has done what very few countries have achieved in effectively suppressing a second-wave outbreak from a high point of more than 700 new cases a day. Victoria has now recorded only two cases in three days and lockdown restrictions are being eased.

Continue reading...

Satellite imagery of Aden indicates scale of pandemic in Yemen

Posted on by

Academics’ analysis of burial plots points to excess deaths level in crisis-ridden country

A groundbreaking study using high-resolution satellite imagery to analyse graveyards has found that deaths have nearly doubled in Aden, the centre of Yemen’s coronavirus outbreak.

The discovery has given a sense of the true scale of the havoc the pandemic has wreaked on the vulnerable country.

Continue reading...

Sudan government denies Rift Valley fever outbreak despite reports of deaths

Posted on by

Doctors say cases and dozens of deaths from the disease have occurred since August floods, with cases of malaria and cholera also on the rise

An outbreak of Rift Valley fever has killed dozens of people and infected more than 1,000 in Sudan’s Northern state, according to local doctors.

Doctors told the Guardian the disease has spread across the towns of Merowe, Al Dabbah and Karima, mainly among cattle herders.

Continue reading...

Coronavirus live news: Germany ‘could hit 20,000 new infections within days’; protests flare in Italy

Posted on by

German minister warns about exponential rise in new cases; protests against Covid restrictions turn violent in Milan and Turin

One of the world’s leading Covid-19 experimental vaccines produces an immune response in older adults as well as the young, its developers say, raising hopes of protection for those most vulnerable to the coronavirus that has caused social and economic chaos around the world.

Neither Oxford University nor its commercial partner AstraZeneca would release the data from the early trials showing the positive effects, which are being submitted to a peer-reviewed journal. But AstraZeneca confirmed the basic findings about the vaccine it calls AZD1222, which were shared at a closed academic meeting.

Related: Oxford Covid vaccine works in all ages, trials suggest

Structural racism led to the disproportionate impact of the coronavirus pandemic on black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) communities in the UK, a review by Dame Doreen Lawrence has concluded.

The report, commissioned by Labour, contradicts the government’s adviser on ethnicity, Dr Raghib Ali, who last week dismissed claims that inequalities within government, health, employment and the education system help to explain why Covid-19 killed disproportionately more people from minority ethnic communities.

Related: Structural racism led to worse Covid impact on BAME groups – report

Continue reading...

US and European markets dip as Covid containment efforts founder

Posted on by

Investors’ summer optimism gives way to insecurity as curfews and lockdowns return

Stock markets in the US and Europe fell sharply oas investors focused on signs that rich countries’ efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic were foundering.

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 index lost 1.8% after heavy falls in German blue-chip stocks. In the US the Dow Jones industrial average closed 2.3% down at 27685.38, while the benchmark S&P 500 fell 1.9% to 3400.97.

Continue reading...

Global report: Merkel says Germany faces ‘difficult months ahead’ in Covid fight

Posted on by

Chancellor says country is on verge of losing control as Europe death toll passes 250k

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, has said her country is on the verge of losing control of its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, telling colleagues from her Christian Democratic Union party “the situation is threatening” and “every day counts”.

In leaked comments to an internal party meeting, she told those attending of “very, very difficult months ahead” and added that “every day [would] count” in tackling the virus’s spread.

Continue reading...