Category Archives: Infectious Diseases

Coronavirus live news: Paris faces being placed on ‘maximum alert’ as India nears 100,000 deaths

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Bars and restaurants in Paris face closure from Monday; Turkey condemned for underreporting cases; Scottish National Party lawmaker suspended after travelling by train despite positive test. Follow the latest updates

In the UK, strictly Come Dancing contestant HRVY has tested positive for coronavirus, just over two weeks before the launch of the new series.

The singer and YouTube star, whose real name is Harvey Leigh Cantwell, announced the news on social media, telling fans he does not have any symptoms and is now isolating for 10 days.

Related: Strictly Come Dancing contestant HRVY tests positive for Covid-19

The death toll in India, which has the second-highest number of cases worldwide, is nearing the grim milestone of 100,000. There are currently 98,678 deaths confirmed on the Johns Hopkins University tracker.

India’s deaths are the third-highest worldwide, after Brazil with 143,952 and the US with 207,651.

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Coronavirus live news: WHO approves new rapid Covid test; Madrid to enter partial lockdown

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Health body gives green light to second test that gives results in up to 30 minutes; Spanish capital is Europe’s worst hotspot

France reported 12,148 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, the French health ministry said.

Friday’s figure is lower than Thursday’s 13,970 and well below highs of over 16,000 seen last week.

The Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, and his wife, Jill, have tested negative for coronavirus, their doctor said in a statement on Friday.

“Vice-president Joe Biden and Dr Jill Biden underwent PCR testing for Covid-19 today and Covid-19 was not detected,” Dr Kevin O’Connor said in a statement.

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UK coronavirus live: indoor mixing ban extended to Merseyside, Warrington, Hartlepool and Middlesbrough

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Government recommends no social mixing between people from different households in these areas; NHS Test and Trace going backwards

Council leaders and MPs from Merseyside have issued a joint statement describing today’s new restrictions as “a step in the right direction”.

But they are also saying the government should publish the scientific evidence showing why the government thinks these measures will be enough.

The measures announced today are a step toward restricting the spread but we need to understand if they are enough to arrest the rise cases across our region.

We're asking for Government to share their scientific evidence and provide us with more substantial financial support. pic.twitter.com/8gV1uJs87n

Graham Morgan, the leader of Knowsley council, says the new restrictions announced for Merseyside this morning may not be enough.

I'm still concerned that these new COVID-19 restrictions won't be enough to stop the spread of the virus here. We're at a critical point & need swift, effective solutions to protect our residents. Our conversations with Government will continue. https://t.co/Z5DZ8azYDl

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Covid-19 live news: Madrid lockdown looms; Italy’s PM proposes extending state of emergency

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Africa approaching 1.5m cases across its 54 countries; Italy could extend government powers to January; record cases high in Ukraine

Sweden has registered its highest daily Covid caseload since June, with 752 new infections recorded on Thursday, though no new related deaths have been recorded.

The Scandinavian country has shunned lockdowns, leaving most schools, restaurants and businesses open throughout the pandemic. Thursday’s rise was the highest since 30 June, when the health agency recorded just over 800 new cases.

The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, has said infections in Russia’s capital are rising by about 2,000 a day, and ordered employers to transfer at least 30% of staff to remote work.

Writing on his blog, Sobyanin said the rate of Covid-19 hospitalisations was also rising by around 5,000 per week.

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Neanderthal genes increase risk of serious Covid-19, study claims

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Strand of DNA inherited by modern humans is linked to likelihood of falling severely ill

Modern humans and Neanderthals could be forgiven for having other issues on their minds when they interbred in the stone age. But according to researchers, those ancient couplings laid a grim foundation for deaths around the world today.

Scientists have claimed that a strand of DNA that triples the risk of developing severe Covid-19 was passed on from Neanderthals to modern humans. The genetic endowment, a legacy from more than 50,000 years ago, has left about 16% of Europeans and half of South Asians today carrying these genes.

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Germans embrace fresh air to ward off coronavirus

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Angela Merkel says ventilation may be one of cheapest and most effective ways of containing virus

Ventilating rooms has been added to the German government’s formula for tackling coronavirus, in refreshing news for the country’s air hygiene experts who have been calling for it to become official for months.

The custom is something of a national obsession, with many Germans habitually opening windows twice a day, even in winter. Often the requirement is included as a legally binding clause in rental agreements, mainly to protect against mould and bad smells.

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‘Only time will tell’: Russia places huge bet on Covid vaccine

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Country will be giving 10m doses of Sputnik V a month by December, says head of fund backing vaccine

For Kirill Dmitriev, the man in charge of selling Russia’s coronavirus vaccine to the world, there’s a simple rationale behind Moscow’s accelerated push to be the first country to roll out a coronavirus vaccine for widespread use.

“It’s part of the Russian mentality to save the world,” said Dmitriev, head of Russia’s RDIF sovereign wealth fund, in an interview with the Guardian.

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Forget notions of coronavirus as a great equaliser – women are yet again the hardest hit | Helen Pankhurst

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Just like every emergency, Covid-19 is racist, ageist, classist and sexist. The world response to the pandemic must reflect this

In the early days of coronavirus, there was a view that a global pandemic would act as a great equaliser. “A virus doesn’t discriminate,” they said. “We’re all in this together.” It didn’t take long for such a credulous perspective to vanish.

Just like every emergency, every disaster, Covid-19 absolutely does discriminate. It’s ageist, it’s racist, it’s classist and it’s worst of all for those with pre-existing health conditions or disabilities.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria reports four deaths and 13 new Covid cases as NSW records four

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NSW records no new locally acquired cases for fifth day as pressure mounts over border closures and budget speculation intensifies. Follow all today’s updates

In aviation news, the regional airline Rex has announced it will start flights between capital cities in 2021, as a competitor to Qantas and Virgin.

Rex has signed letters of intent to lease six Boeing 737 planes, which will fly between Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, AAP reports.

Hi all, it is Naaman Zhou here. Thanks as always to Amy Remeikis for her blog captaining today.

Pokies profits dropped sharply during the first wave of the pandemic, but are still in the billions, according to new figures released today and reported by AAP.

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Coronavirus live news: 60m Indians may have contracted Covid; Disney announces mass layoffs

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India’s pandemic agency says cases may be ten times official figure; New York introduces face mask fines as positivity rates climb; Boris Johnson apologises for getting north-east England lockdown rules wrong. Follow the latest updates

The revered living goddess is not leaving her temple this year, AP reports:

The old palace courtyard packed with hundreds of thousands of people each year during the Indrajatra festival is deserted, the temples are locked, and all public celebrations are banned by the government to curb the coronavirus.

North Korea has discovered “faults” in its anti-coronavirus measures, state media said on Wednesday, after an outcry in South Korea over a citizen who North Korean soldiers killed near their maritime border where tight virus controls are in force.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offered a rare apology for the killing of the South Korean fisheries officer last week in waters off the west coast of the peninsula.

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Coronavirus live news: Italian senate suspended as lawmakers test positive; Covid travel slump could cost 46m jobs

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Vaccine trial shows ‘robust’ immune response; warning over global impact of travel collapse; Belgium death toll exceeds 10,000

Turkey’s health minister appeared to acknowledge that the government does not publish the full number of daily positive Covid-19 cases but only those who are symptomatic, while refuting a claim that the case number had been 19 times the official figures.

The official number of daily coronavirus cases in Turkey has begun to decline in recent days after rising over the past several weeks. Politicians and medics have expressed doubt over the government’s numbers, saying the number of coronavirus cases are actually much higher.

Moderna said it will not be ready to apply for emergency approval for its potential Covid-19 vaccine before the US presidential election in November, the Financial Times has reported.

The company’s chief executive officer, Stéphane Bancel, told FT that he did not expect to have full approval to distribute the drug to all sections of the US population until next spring.

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Panama’s trans community failed by gendered lockdown measures – report

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LSE finds country’s sex-segregated distancing rules may have reproduced inequalities and injustices for trans people

Each day when Pau González wakes and looks at his phone, he feels as if he is running a call centre. As the founder of the activist group Hombres Trans Panama, he has been inundated by members of the transgender community seeking advice on how to navigate Panama’s sex-segregated social distancing laws. Some callers have been cautioned or abused by police. Others report feeling suicidal and scared to go out.

In April, Panama announced one of the most aggressive Covid-19 policies in Latin America – dictated which days its citizens could go out according to their sex as stated on their national identification cards.

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World Bank announces $12bn plan for poor countries to buy Covid vaccines

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Initiative aims to ensure low-income countries are not frozen out by rich nations

The World Bank has announced plans for a $12bn (£9.3bn) initiative that will allow poor countries to purchase Covid-19 vaccines to treat up to 2 billion people as soon as effective drugs become available.

In an attempt to ensure that low-income countries are not frozen out by wealthy nations, the organisation is asking its key rich-nation shareholders to back a scheme that will disburse cash over the next 12 to 18 months.

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Most countries failing women and girls with Covid response, UN finds

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Global gender tracker assesses how governments address violence, strengthen women’s economic security and support unpaid caring

Most countries are failing to adequately protect women and girls during the fallout from Covid-19, according to a new UN database that tracks government responses to the pandemic.

The global gender tracker has looked at how 206 countries and territories address violence against women and girls, support unpaid care workers and strengthen women’s economic security.

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Global coronavirus deaths pass 1m with no sign rate is slowing

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Johns Hopkins University data points to rises in countries that seemed to have slowed spread

The number of people who have died from Covid-19 has exceeded 1 million, according to a tally of cases maintained by Johns Hopkins University, with no sign the global death rate is slowing and infections on the rise again in countries that were thought to be controlling their outbreaks months ago.

The milestone was reached early on Tuesday morning UK time, nine months since authorities in China first announced the detection of a cluster of pneumonia cases with an unknown cause in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. The first recorded death, that of a 61-year-old man in a hospital in the city, came 12 days later.

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Boris Johnson’s Covid-19 policy critics: who says what?

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A selection of comments from across the political divide on PM’s handling of pandemic

The brewing rebellion among Tory backbenchers over the lack of scrutiny afforded to parliament on Covid-19 restrictions – as well as concerns about their impact – has left Boris Johnson facing criticism from within and outside his party. Here are some of the more pointed comments levelled against the prime minister and his policies from across the political divide.

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Covid-19 tests that give results in minutes to be rolled out across world

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Global initiative will supply 120m rapid antigen tests to low- and middle-income countries

Tests for Covid-19 that show on-the-spot results in 15 to 30 minutes are about to be rolled out across the world, potentially saving many thousands of lives and slowing the pandemic in both poor and rich countries.

In a triumph for a global initiative to get vital drugs and vaccines to fight the virus, 120m rapid antigen tests from two companies will be supplied to low- and middle-income countries for $5 (£3.90) each or even less.

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Scientists work on nasal spray that could stop Covid virus replicating

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Substance has had promising results in ferrets, with hopes it may reduce transmission

A nasal spray is under development that could nip a coronavirus infection in the bud, with promising results already seen in ferrets, researchers have revealed.

With coronavirus infections surging around the world, the race is on to develop a vaccine. But researchers are also looking for other ways to tackle Covid-19.

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Coronavirus Australia live update: Victoria hotel quarantine inquiry finds private security decision influenced by police preference

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Melbourne’s stage four restrictions ease as Victoria records three deaths and five new Covid cases and NSW reports zero. Follow live

A man who had been deported to New Zealand, and who was in isolation at a government-run quarantine hotel, is under investigation by the police after he tied bed sheets together to escape the facility from a fourth floor window.

All travellers returning to the country – only New Zealanders and their families, plus others with special exemptions are allowed to pass through its borders – must spend two weeks in mandatory isolation, during which they are tested twice for Covid-19.

I am going to leave you in the very capable hands of Naaman Zhou for the rest of the afternoon shift.

There have been quite a few messages today – I am slowly working my way through them – but if you have anything else to say, or I missed you, you can contact me here and here.

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Coronavirus live news: global death toll nears one million as WHO warns number is likely an underestimate

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WHO says global toll is likely to be over one million already; travel in and out of Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague may be banned

The percentage of Covid-19 tests taken in New York state that have come back positive has inched up to 1.5%, governor Andrew Cuomo said, a worrisome trend for the former centre of the US coronavirus epidemic.

The rise in positivity in New York above the 1% target comes as 27 other states recorded increases in the number of cases for two straight weeks.

MEPs won’t yet be returning to Strasbourg due to rising coronavirus infections in France, the European parliament speaker said, despite a plea by the French president, Emmanuel Macron.

The European parliament has its headquarters in Strasbourg in eastern France, where MEPs usually based in Brussels travel every month for 12 plenary sessions a year.

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