Category Archives: Infectious Diseases

Which European countries are easing travel restrictions?

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As some countries in Europe restart tourism, we round up lockdown-easing measures and restrictions country-by-country. Information will be updated as the situation changes

The UK Foreign Office (FCO) is currently advising against all but essential international travel for an indefinite period. However, countries across Europe have begun to ease lockdown measures and border restrictions, and to prepare for the return of domestic and international tourists.

At the UK border, all arrivals must self-isolate for 14 days from 8 June, or face a £1,000 fine. Arrivals must also provide contact and accommodation information, and the authorities have said they will carry out spot checks. Failure to supply an address may result in a £100 fine. They will also be strongly advised to download and use the NHS contact tracing app.

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Street snacks to sanitiser: the Afghan women fighting coronavirus in Kabul

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When lockdown closed their businesses, food sellers adapted their carts into mini disinfection units to tackle the outbreak

Photographs by Stefanie Glinski

Freshta had spent months building up a franchise business to help to feed her family – and break a few taboos on women at the same time – when coronavirus hit Afghanistan.

In November, the engineering student, (who has asked to be identified by one name only) became one of a fleet of female drivers taking 40 Banu’s Kitchen food carts around Kabul, serving up burgers and rice to a predominantly male customer base. “At the beginning, men on the streets would be shocked to see us driving a motorbike and selling food, but after about two or three months, they are now used to it. They even support us,” she says.

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Coronavirus live news: Argentina records more than 1,000 daily cases for first time

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WHO official walks back asymptomatic transmission comments; world faces worst food crisis in 50 years; UK NHS waiting list could hit 10m

Japan’s lower house of parliament has approved an emergency budget worth nearly over £230bn, doubling the scale of measures to pep up the world’s third-biggest economy after the coronavirus tipped it into recession, AFP reports.

Their raucous clucking deprives residents of sleep. They leave the neighbourhood “wrecked”. And food left out for them attracts “rats the size of cats” to an otherwise peaceful, leafy suburb.

New Zealand’s national lockdown to quell the spread of Covid-19 appears to have vanquished the virus, but it has had one unintended consequence: the re-emergence of a plague – not of frogs or locusts but of feral chickens, a flock of which is once again menacing an area of west Auckland.

Related: 'Like a Stephen King movie': feral chickens return to plague New Zealand village

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Coronavirus live news: Africa passes 200,000 confirmed cases after Burundi president dies of suspected Covid-19

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Asylum applications in Europe fall to lowest level for a decade as borders closed; world faces worst food crisis in 50 years

Louise Taylor and David Conn report:

Premier League clubs should be braced for a collective £500m loss of revenue because of the coronavirus pandemic, Deloitte has warned.

Related: Premier League clubs set for £500m collective loss due to coronavirus

Key developments in the global coronavirus outbreak so far today include:

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Nigeria to cut healthcare spending by 40% despite coronavirus cases climbing

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Nurses say they have been left without promised compensation as £75m set aside for renovation of parliament buildings

Plans by Nigeria’s government to cut healthcare spending risk undermining the country’s coronavirus response and severely impacting already strained services, health and transparency groups have warned.

Funding for local, primary healthcare services will be cut by more than 40% this year in a revised budget expected to be passed into law in the coming weeks.

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CrossFit CEO Greg Glassman resigns after offensive George Floyd and coronavirus tweets

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Fitness program lost key partnerships, endorsements and the business of hundreds of affiliated gyms around the world after Glassman tweets

The founder of the US fitness brand CrossFit will step down from his position as CEO following a disastrous few days that have seen the fitness program lose key partnerships, endorsements and the business of hundreds of affiliated gyms around the world.

The move comes after a pair of offensive tweets by Greg Glassman. On Saturday, in response to a tweet from the research centre Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, which stated “Racism is a public health issue”, Glassman tweeted “It’s FLOYD-19”, in reference to the police killing of George Floyd, whose death has sparked a global protest movement.

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Coronavirus live news: New Zealand ‘Covid-19 free’ as UK travel quarantine rules begin

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New Zealand has zero active cases; Global cases pass 7 million, deaths pass 400,000; Chile deaths jump after new fatalities added. Follow the latest updates

The Ryanair boss, Michael O’Leary, has delivered his withering verdict on Britain’s quarantine rules, which came into force today: “British people are ignoring this quarantine. They know it’s rubbish.”

More here:

Related: Ryanair boss: Britons know quarantine rules are rubbish

The Philippines has reported 579 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 today, and eight deaths. Malaysia has reported seven new confirmed cases, and no deaths.

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Workers in Tokyo’s red-light district to be tested for coronavirus after new spike

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Dozens of new infections reported in Kabukicho, a district of more than 4,000 bars, restaurants and commercial sex establishments

Health authorities in Tokyo are to ask employees of host clubs and similar establishments to be regularly tested for Covid-19 after evidence that the virus is spreading among people who work in the capital’s night-time economy.

The city reported 14 new infections on Sunday, six of which involved people working in clubs where employees pour drinks and talk to customers in close proximity.

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Brazil stops releasing Covid-19 death toll and wipes data from official site

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Government accused of totalitarianism and censorship after Bolsonaro orders end to publication of numbers

The Brazilian government has been accused of totalitarianism and censorship after it stopped releasing its total numbers of Covid-19 cases and deaths and wiped an official site clean of swaths of data.

Health ministry insiders told local media the move was ordered by far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, himself – and was met with widespread outrage in Brazil, one of the world’s worst-hit Covid-19 hotspots, with more deaths than Italy and more cases than Russia and the UK.

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What is the coronavirus R number and is it rising in the UK?

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Research suggests the average number of people one person infects may be increasing – but opinions differ as to why

With models suggesting that R could have risen above 1 in some parts of the UK, we look at what that means and how concerned we should be:

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Global report: China hails coronavirus response as world death toll tops 400,000

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Beijing denies cover-up or delay, while countries easing lockdowns face spike in cases

The number of confirmed deaths from coronavirus globally has topped 400,000, as the Chinese government released a report lauding its own response to the pandemic that emerged in the city of Wuhan six months ago.

As more countries prepared to continue easing their lockdowns from Monday, Singapore’s prime minister warned the city-state’s citizens that they were entering a tougher world of slowing demand and travel restrictions for the foreseeable future.

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Breakthrough close on coronavirus antibody therapy: reports

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Scientists say injection of cloned antibodies could help treat people already infected, while vaccine development continues

Scientists working on coronavirus treatments may be close to a breakthrough on an antibody treatment that could save the lives of people who become infected, it has been reported.

An injection of cloned antibodies that counteract Covid-19 could prove significant for those in the early stages of infection, according to the British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca.

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Coronavirus live updates: US cases approach 2 million; pope warns Italians not to let their guard down

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Bolsonaro conceals Brazilian death toll; Philippines death toll passes 1,000; lockdown in Greece migrant camps extended

You can reach me on Twitter @cleaskopeliti, or by email with any tips, feedback or suggestions for coverage. Cheers.

“The word most often used is ‘unprecedented’,” Jo Stubley, a consultant psychiatrist and clinical psychoanalyst in London says, “and it looks increasingly likely that the long-term consequences will also be unprecedented in scale. Given that mental health services have been starved of resources for years, one can only imagine the impact that a deep recession will have on an already beleaguered sector. So there is a lot of concern among health care professionals like myself about what will happen next.”

Related: Health experts on the psychological cost of Covid-19

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‘It’s psychologically easier’: how anti-vaxxers capitalised on coronavirus fears to spread misinformation

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While many believe a Covid-19 vaccine will be a ‘ticket out’, experts are concerned getting people to take it is the real challenge

When Susan had a baby daughter, she was not planning on having her vaccinated. It didn’t seem abnormal to her – most of her mothers’ group didn’t vaccinate either.

“I had friends who believed in natural healing, healthy food, being vegan, eating raw food. I just didn’t think that vaccines were necessary.” 

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Prime minister told to dump rhetoric and plan for new Covid wave

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Medical chiefs call for a public health campaign as faith in government strategy slumps

Senior figures from across the NHS have issued an urgent plea for a comprehensive plan to tackle a second wave of coronavirus infections, as Boris Johnson continues to lose public confidence in his handling of the pandemic.

Amid persistent fears among scientists that the virus remains too prevalent to ease the lockdown further, the prime minister has been urged to ditch “cheap political rhetoric” that risks eroding the public’s adherence to lockdown measures in the months ahead.

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‘We need the Brits’: Benidorm banks on August tourist surge

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Spanish resort ‘like a ghost town’ as UK’s Covid-19 lockdown keeps its best customers away

There’ll be no craic at the Shamrock tonight, says Lisa Griffin, who has run the Irish pub in Benidorm for 25 years.

Griffin’s 15 staff, who include a four-piece band, are on furlough and no one knows what will happen when the Spanish government’s scheme comes to an end on 30 June.

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WHO advises public to wear face masks when unable to distance

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Over-60s should use medical-grade masks and all others three-layer fabric ones, health body says

People over 60 or with health issues should wear a medical-grade mask when they are out and cannot socially distance, according to new guidance from the World Health Organization, while all others should wear a three-layer fabric mask.

The announcement on Friday marks a significant change of stance by the WHO, which until now has been reluctant to advocate the wearing of masks by the public because of limited evidence that they offer protection.

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UK coronavirus live: infection R rate rises to between 0.7 and 1 in England

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News updates: EHRC will look into ‘long-standing, structural race inequality’; those shielding in Wales asked to stay home until mid-August

A senior Northern Ireland police officer has made a strong appeal to protesters not to take part in demonstrations this weekend.

PSNI assistant chief constable Alan Todd said his officers are engaging with organisers of Black Lives Matter gatherings to explain the coronavirus regulations, adding if the warnings are ignored then enforcement will be used.

I have a very clear message to organisers, the best way to resolve this for everybody’s interests is to call off these events.

Large crowd protests are at this time inappropriate.

On any other day as a police service we would be fully facilitating those protests in a peaceful and lawful manner with the organisers, however this is not any other day, we’re in the middle of a pandemic and gathering in crowds, socially distanced or otherwise, is both a risk to public health and a breach of the health protection regulations.

It seems to be somewhat ironic that we would protest the avoidable and unnecessary death of an individual in the United States by risking unnecessary and avoidable deaths in Northern Ireland.

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Coronavirus live news: Sweden sees third consecutive day of over 1,000 new cases; virus ‘under control’ in France

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Brazil death toll passes Italy; New York urges protesters to get tested; Turkey announces weekend lockdown in 15 cities

The commander of US forces in Japan has accused China of using the coronavirus crisis as a cover for a surge in naval activity to push territorial claims in the South China Sea.

In a telephone interview with the Reuters news agency, Lieutenant General Kevin Schneider said there had been a surged of activity by China, with navy ships, coast guard vessels and a naval militia of fishing boats in harassing vessels in waters claimed by Beijing.

Peru is beginning the second phase of its economic reopening on Friday, even as its ongoing coronavirus outbreak showed little signs of slowing, with 4,284 new confirmed cases reported on Thursday.

The president, Martin Vizcarra, announced the second phase of lockdown easing on Thursday, after his council of ministers approved a presidential decree calling for the restart of economic activity.

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Vitamin K could help fight coronavirus, study suggests

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Scientists in Netherlands explore possible link between deficiency and Covid-19 deaths

Patients who have died or been admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 have been found to be deficient in a vitamin found in spinach, eggs and hard and blue cheeses, raising hopes that dietary change might be one part of the answer to combating the disease.

Researchers studying patients who were admitted to the Canisius Wilhelmina hospital in the Dutch city of Nijmegen have extolled the benefits of vitamin K after discovering a link between deficiency and the worst coronavirus outcomes.

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