Country records 41,828 fatalities; Deaths in Delhi could be twice as high as reported; German health minister warns nation against ‘carefree’ attitude
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A major laboratory in Ecuador’s capital closed and halted processing coronavirus tests Friday because technicians did not have basic supplies like tubes, pipettes, masks and gloves needed to safely analyse the specimens.
The Biotechnology Institute at Quitos Central University had been expected to receive and process tens of thousands of tests but its director said only 5,150 could be done before running out of equipment. “We can’t process any more tests because of a technical failing,” Lucy Baldeón said. Ecuador is one of nations hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic in Latin America. As major cities like Quito begin to reopen, authorities have insisted on the need to increases testing. But those efforts have been complicated by corruption scandals, delays in acquiring tests and now shortages of essential lab materials.
White House infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci has said his advice to people who want to attend US president Donald Trump’s campaign rallies is the same for Black Lives Matter and anti-Trump protestors. He said the gatherings are “a danger” and “risky.”
Trump announced his campaign rallies are planned for 19 June, known as Juneteenth in the US, a holiday marking the end of slavery. Trump has insisted he did not choose the date on purpose. “The fact that I’m having a rally on that day - you can really think about that very positively as a celebration,” Trump told Fox News. “Because a rally to me is a celebration. It’s an interesting date. It wasn’t done for that reason, but it’s an interesting date.”
President Trump wants to hold an offensive & blatantly unsafe indoor rally in Tulsa on Juneteenth.
A rally requiring attendees to sign liability waivers b/c of the likelihood of contracting COVID.
Well, I thought we should ask @CDCDirector whether he thinks that's a good idea. pic.twitter.com/1IDPDkEk5o
Black Lives Matter advocates and refugee activists will hold protests throughout Australia on Saturday, despite warnings from health authorities they could lead to Covid-19 outbreaks. Australia’s chief medical officer, Prof Brendan Murphy, said on Friday, “These sort of events really are dangerous”. However the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced on the same day that major sports stadiums may allow 10,000 people by July.
It follows protests last weekend, when people took to the streets campaigning for an end to Aboriginal deaths in custody. There have been 437 known Aboriginal deaths since the royal commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody delivered its final report in 1991, and yet despite this, change has been slow. The protests were sparked in solidarity with the US following the brutal death of unarmed man George Floyd on 25 May.
One man was diagnosed with the virus following the Melbourne protests, with health authorities saying he was likely infected prior to the rally. Victoria police issued fines of $1652 each to the three people who organised the protest.
Two stray observations from today’s protest:
1) These guys were already there, protecting the Captain Cook statue - which nobody else ended up going near
2) Saw a few commercial TV reporters and crew who clearly have started hiring their own security https://t.co/vERlwByEBcpic.twitter.com/bwNsXyzOaS
Related: Black Lives Matter: health experts assess risks of Covid-19 transmission at Australia protests
Egypt has confirmed 1,577 new coronavirus cases, the highest daily increase in almost two weeks.
In total, the Arab world’s most populous country has registered 41,303 cases including 1,422 deaths, the ministry said in a statement.
South Africa’s confirmed coronavirus infections have risen by more than 10,000 in five days to 61,927 on Friday, official figures showed.
Positive cases stood at 50,879 on Monday, just a week after the continent’s worst-hit country further eased lockdown restrictions.
Brazil’s death toll from the virus has overtaken the UK to become the second highest in the world.
The figure stands at 41,828, the country’s health ministry said, with only the US having more fatalities.
Brazil has registered 828,810 confirmed Covid-19 cases.
Scotland Yard has issued restrictions on Black Lives Matter and counterprotests protests planned for Saturday in England with all marching and assembly to end at 5pm.
Police have warned demonstrators they would be in breach of the coronavirus act and set out conditions to keep the two sets of demos apart.
Protests Sat 13 June | Conditions Imposed
We are asking you not to come to London, and let your voices be heard in other ways.
To ensure the safety of the public, participants and officers we have made the decision to impose conditions on the planned demonstrations tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/7huZ9NpC46
A newborn baby in the UK who was diagnosed with a heart defect has defied the odds after contracting coronavirus.
Raees Hassain, from Rochdale in Greater Manchester, had a “remote” chance of survival after being rushed to hospital at six weeks old.
The front page of Saturday’s UK edition of The Guardian.
Guardian front page, Saturday 13 June 2020: Johnson 'stoking fear and division' over protests pic.twitter.com/YX3eiFZb7A
Requiring the wearing of masks to prevent the spread of coronavirus in areas at the epicenter of the global pandemic may have prevented tens of thousands of infections, a new study suggests.
Mask-wearing is even more important for preventing the virus’ spread than social distancing and stay-at-home orders, researchers said in the study published in PNAS: The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA.
US stocks ended higher on Friday as bargain hunters stepped back into the market following sharp losses a day earlier - but all three major indexes suffered their biggest weekly percentage declines since March.
The day’s trading was marked by wild swings, with the S&P 500 up about 3% at its high of the session and down about 0.6% at the low.
Slovenia will open its borders for citizens of Montenegro and Italy on Monday, the government said.
It also said it will from Saturday introduce an obligatory 14-day quarantine for most people coming to Slovenia from 31 states where the epidemiologic situation has worsened over the past weeks, including Sweden, Britain, Russia, United States and Brazil.
Mexico City has announced a plan for reopening that would begin next week by dropping driving restrictions and allowing manufacturing and neighborhood businesses to reopen if they meet health standards.
Mayor Claudia Sheinbaum said that street markets, malls, restaurants and churches could follow a week later but at reduced capacity.
As President Trump prepares to resume his campaign rallies and George Floyd protests continue across the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “strongly encouraged” attendees of large gatherings to wear cloth face coverings in newly issued guidance.
According to the guidance, “Cloth face coverings are strongly encouraged in settings where individuals might raise their voice (e.g., shouting, chanting, singing).”
Brazil’s Covid-19 death toll is on track to overtake Britain to become the second highest in the world with over 40,000 dead.
The World Health Organization inists the nation’s health system was standing up to the pressure.
The attempt by President Trump’s campaign to shield itself from lawsuits by people who become infected with the coronavirus at his first political rally in months is unlikely to hold up in court, legal experts said.
A waiver on the Trump campaign’s website absolving it from coronavirus-related lawsuits stemming from the June 19 event is “poorly lawyered” and would not be enforceable because it is not specific enough, said David Noll, a law professor at Rutgers University.
Hundreds of Kenyans defied tear gas and riot police to carry off the body of a popular singer, trying to prevent a swift burial under rules for suspected coronavirus cases.
Mourners and fans of Bernard Obonyo, whose stage name is Abenny Jachiga, swarmed the cemetery, preventing the singer’s funeral from taking place in Kisumu city in western Kenya.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has cancelled face-to-face meetings and visits and will limit his contacts to a close circle after his wife tested positive for coronavirus, the presidential press service said.
“Face-to-face meetings... are excluded in the coming days. Participation in mass events is also excluded, working trips outside the capital of Ukraine are cancelled,” it said in a statement.
Richard Luscombe sends this report from Miami on the rising number of coronavirus cases in Florida:
New coronavirus cases in Florida have set a daily record for the second day in a row. State figures released Friday morning show 1,902 more cases of Covid-19, up another 204 on Thursday’s previous record tally.
Vietnam was the first country to allow football fans back in to watch matches. The top-flight match between Ha Tinh and Ha Noi had to be halted because of overcrowding.
No-one appeared to be hurt and the game resumed with fans stood on the running track around the pitch.
The Americas are bearing the brunt of the global coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) said with North and South America currently having four of the 10 worst hit countries in the world.
The disease was “highly active” in Central and South America, the WHO’s top emergency expert Mike Ryan said, highlighting problems in Brazil and Mexico.
Hillary Clinton has criticised President Trump for planning a campaign rally next Friday despite ongoing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic.
The former Democratic presidential nominee condemned Trump for asking rally attendees to sign a liability waiver regarding the risks around potentially contracting the virus.
If your rallies come with a liability waiver, you shouldn’t be holding them. https://t.co/J1BgdUec9k
Survivors of Covid-19 are donating their blood plasma in droves in hopes it helps other patients recover from the coronavirus.
Scientists are testing if the donations might also prevent infection in the first place.
Lebanon will re-open Beirut Rafic Hariri International Airport for commercial flights from July 1 but will keep air traffic at 10% of capacity from a year ago, a statement from the prime minister’s office said.
Private flights will resume from June 24, the statement said.
France has reported the number of Covid-19 deaths over the past 24 hours increased by just 28 to 29,374, the third day the toll remained under 30 and the lowest three-day toll since lockdown started in mid-March.
On Thursday and Wednesday the toll stood at 27 and 23, after averaging over 50 in the previous seven days and 91 in the 33 days since the end of lockdown on 11 May.
A further 947 Covid-19 deaths have been recorded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), taking the country’s total to 113,914.
In addition, 21,744 new Covid-19 cases were reported - the country’s total is now 2,016,027.
The death rate in France returned in May to a level comparable with other years, following weeks of elevated mortality due to the coronavirus outbreak, the country’s Insee statistics institute said.
Between 1 May and 1 June, 49,178 deaths were recorded, a decline of 3% on the same period last year, and similar to numbers for 2018, it said.
The global coronavirus pandemic remains “very much in the upswing” with a danger the disease could swiftly return to countries as they emerge from lockdowns, the World Health Organization said.
Countries in south east Asia are working hard to identify new clusters and break the chains of transmission, WHO’s top emergencies expert Dr Mike Ryan told a news conference.
We are still very much in the upswing of this pandemic especially in the global South.
It’s not surprising at all that any country coming out of a so-called lockdown can have clusters of disease, re-emergence of disease in clusters. That’s not necessarily a second wave.
The number of new coronavirus cases in Turkey rose above 1,000 in the last 24 hours for the first time since 29 May, after the easing of travel restrictions and reopening of public facilities at the start of last week.
Data showed 1,195 new cases were identified, up from a low of 786 last Tuesday, and 15 people died in the last 24 hours.
London fashion week, the first of the four major shows to go online-only has replaced catwalks with films, podcasts, live-streamed discussions – and even a drop-in virtual afterparty.
The schedule, which began today and runs until Sunday, will feature no catwalk shows, no cocktail parties and definitely no air-kissing.
Related: London fashion week drops elitist traditions as event goes fully digital
Galicia will become the first of Spain’s 17 regions to exit lockdown next week and enter the “new normality” when all restrictions on movement are lifted.
But the wearing of masks in public places will remain compulsory as it will elsewhere in the country until a vaccine against the virus is found.
Breastfeeding mothers do not seem to be passing on Covid-19 to their infants, a World Health Organization expert has said.
New mothers infected with the virus should generally continue breastfeeding if they wish to and should not be separated from their babies, the WHO said, stressing that the benefits outweighed the risks.
We know that children are at relatively low-risk of Covid-19, but are at high risk of numerous other diseases and conditions that breastfeeding prevents.
Based on the available evidence, WHO’s advice is that the benefits of breastfeeding outweigh any potential risks of transmission of Covid-19.
French president Emmanuel Macron will meet Britain’s Prince Charles when he visits London next week, his first trip abroad since the coronavirus crisis.
Macron will visit London on Thursday to commemorate the 80th anniversary of former French president Charles de Gaulle’s appeal to French people to resist the Nazi occupation during World War II.
As we set out in the guidelines when they were published, the French delegation will fall within the exempted category of representatives of a foreign country or territory travelling to undertake business in the UK.
Quebec, the Canadian province hit hardest by the coronavirus outbreak, is touting its vast spaces, “lone wolf” running event, and “end of the road” trails to travellers as a centre for social distancing, tourism executives said.
Roughly six times the size of France and with a population around the size of New York City, Quebec aims to spur demand among its own residents, while looking to tourists from neighboring province Ontario and the United States when travel restrictions relax.
The popular Paris Plages urban beach event will go ahead this summer but with coronavirus health precautions, the city mayor Anne Hidalgo has announced.
The man-made beaches created with several tons of sand along the right bank of the Seine will be installed from 18 July to the end of August as part of an annual event aimed at giving Parisians who cannot get away from the city during the summer a taste of the seaside.
Covid-19 vaccines should be made available as a global public good,the World Health Organization has said, to ensure everyone has fair access to any life-saving products that are developed.
WHO director-general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference:
Many leaders...have promoted the idea of making any vaccine a global public good, but that should continue to be promoted.
More leaders should join the boat, and we need to have a truly global political commitment and global consensus before we even have the product. That is what we are pushing.
Germany will on Monday night end border checks with its neighbours introduced to fight the coronavirus, the interior ministry told AFP.
“The requirement of a valid reason for entry will... no longer apply” along Germany’s land borders, a ministry spokesman said.
Deaths from Covid-19 in Italy climbed by 56 on Friday against 53 the day before, taking the country’s total toll to 34,223.
The official tally of new cases rose by just 163 against 379 on Thursday, but this was muddied by a recalculation of past data by the southern region of Campania, which subtracted previous cases and reported a total of -229 on Friday.
Pakistan’sruling party has vowed to double healthcare spending as it unveiled a new budget which dramatically slashed other expenditure as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the economy.
To a chorus of boos from the opposition, the government announced plans to cut the overall budget by 11% compared with last year, as revenues dried up and deficits soared in the impoverished nation.
The coronavirus outbreak is hitting South Africa’s mainly black townships harder than areas that were once the exclusive preserve of white people, according to new data that highlights the lasting impact of apartheid-era housing policies.
More than two decades after the end of white minority rule, South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, according to the World Bank, with urban areas starkly divided along racial lines.
During apartheid, black people had to live in sub-standard, crowded, unsanitary conditions, far from economic opportunity.
Not much has changed.
Greece will not be initially accepting passenger flights from Britain as it reopens to tourism on Monday, the government said today.
And all passengers from Italy, Spain and the Netherlands are to undergo tests upon arrival, the tourism and health ministers said as the country prepares for foreign visitors for the first time since the Covid-19 lockdown in March.
Japan is aiming to launch a smartphone contact tracking app next week to curb the spread of coronavirus, the health ministry has said.
Phones with the app installed can detect each other via Bluetooth and log those who have come into close contact.
My colleagues Hannah Ellis-Petersen and Amrit Dhillon have written a poignant report on how the pandemic has pushed the Indian healthcare system to the bring of collapse.
Cases in India, currently at 298,000, are now increasing by 10,000 per day and the country has overtaken the UK to be the fourth-worst hit in the world. India’s biggest cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Chennai are not only running out of beds, but also doctors and nurses to treat the unprecedented numbers of patients, and university medical professors have been seconded to work on Covid hospital wards out of desperation.
Related: India's coronavirus agony: 'I did everything to save my wife and baby'
Turkey’s top medical association has criticised the decision to ease coronavirus restrictions, saying moves were not backed by science and came too soon, before the country had overcome the pandemic’s initial wave.
Since 1 June, Turkey has lifted weekend stay-home orders, ended curbs on intercity travel, resumed some international flights and re-opened cafes, restaurants, parks, beaches and gyms.
At times, there is talk of when the second wave will hit, but we have not yet been able to overcome the first wave.
The early re-opening decisions that are not based on scientific facts, especially since June 1, have caused a rise in case numbers and the number of patients receiving treatment in ICUs and needing respirators.
We are looking for a scientific basis for nearly all the measures that are being eased, but we cannot find any.
We find it odd that in a pandemic where we lost nearly 5,000 citizens, there is an effort to find a success story.
Canada’s two largest grocery chains have announced plans to wind down ‘emergency’ pay for employees, despite taking in record profits during the ongoing coronavirus pandemic— a move that has prompted outrage from union leaders.
Loblaws and Metro have both rolled out a C$2/hour premium during the pandemic in recognition that employees faced increased risk as front line workers.
The pandemic is not over. The danger has not passed. These workers are no less at risk and are no less essential today than they were yesterday. There is no justification for ending pandemic pay now, or ever.
Retail workers have always been essential, and they have always deserved much better. The fact is, the pandemic did not make these workers essential and did not create the inequities in retail, it simply exposed them.
The Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, was questioned for three hours on Friday by the prosecutor investigating an alleged failure by authorities to quarantine two Lombardy towns at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic.
Conte was questioned, as a witness, by Bergamo prosecutor, Maria Cristina Rota, in Rome. Rota is leading an investigation into the failure to swiftly seal-off Alzano and Nembro, two towns in the worst-hit province of Bergamo, after outbreaks occurred in both.
I will conscientiously set out all the facts of which I have knowledge.
All investigations are welcome. The citizens have the right to know and we have the right to reply.
Your questions answered on what type of mask to wear to cut the risk of getting Covid-19:
Related: What kind of face mask gives the best protection against coronavirus?
The European commission has received a political mandate from EU governments to negotiate on their behalf advance purchases of promising coronavirus vaccines, the EU’s top health official said, urging states to set aside parallel initiatives.
EU health commissioner Stella Kyriakides told a news conference there was “overwhelming” support from EU governments for a commission plan to use a €2.4bn ($2.7bn) fund to buy coronavirus vaccines upfront.
A South African court has started hearing a challenge by the main opposition party against a government-imposed ban on personal care services to limit the spread of coronavirus.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) party on Monday filed a lawsuit in the Western Cape high court to have the ban – which prevents hairdressers, beauticians and tattoo artists from working – declared “invalid and unconstitutional”.
The reality is that the devastation from the continued economic lockdown will see more lives lost than the virus could ever harm. Government must stop driving fear and empower people to work and protect themselves and their livelihoods.
Britain’s government has brought in quarantine rules to protect public health, a spokesman for prime minister Boris Johnson has said, declining to comment on legal action brought by British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair.
“I would emphasise that we’ve obviously brought these quarantine rules into place to protect public health and ensure we don’t import the virus as cases in the community reduce,” the spokesman told reporters, adding that the government does not comment on “ongoing legal matters”.
French superchef Alain Ducasse is using a ventilation system similar to those in hospital operating theatres to reopen one of his Paris restaurants.
Ducasse, whose restaurants have 17 Michelin stars - the most of any chef in the world - is installing the sophisticated system in his historic Allard bistro in the Saint Germain des Pres district of the French capital so it can open later this month.
Norwaywill allow travel to and from Finland, Iceland and the Swedish island of Gotland from 15 June, but is maintaining existing travel restrictions imposed on mainland Sweden due to its higher level of Covid-19 cases.
Denmark, Finland and Norway have lifted some of the travel restrictions they imposed to slow the spread of Covid-19, but they have kept most of the ones imposed on Sweden.
At the same time we have a good conversation about how we’re doing it, and the fact that we’re applying objective criteria has been met with understanding.
Europe needs to become more independent in supplying itself with face masks and certain medicines as it battles the coronavirus outbreak, German health ministerJens Spahn has said.
Spahn told a news conference:
It’s not about calling globalisation into question - it’s about finding the right degree of globalisation.
When it comes to face masks and certain medications, we’ve seen that we should not make ourselves completely dependent on the global market.
Deaths from coronavirus in New Delhi are almost twice as high as official figures show, a city leader said, as India overtook Britain with the fourth-highest number of cases worldwide.
With India’s lockdown being widely eased, the government has been reporting almost 10,000 new confirmed cases every day with infections totalling almost 300,000, including 8,500 deaths.
Ukraine’s first lady, Olena Zelenska, has tested positive for coronavirus, but her husband, president Volodymyr Zelenskiy, and their twochildren have tested negative.
She wrote on Facebook on Friday:
Today I received a positive test for coronavirus.
Unexpected news. Especially considering that I and my family continue to follow all the rules – masks, gloves, a minimum of contacts.
President Vladimir Putin has said an “absolute majority” of Russians back his controversial plan to change the constitution, as he made his first public appearance after weeks of lockdown.
Russia, which has the world’s third-largest coronavirus caseload, this week lifted tight restrictions as Putin set the stage for a vote on 1 July that could extend his hold on power until 2036.
Zoom has admitted it suspended the accounts of human rights activists at the behest of the Chinese government and suggested it will block any further meetings that Beijing complains are illegal.
On Thursday, the video conferencing platform was accused of disrupting or shutting down the accounts of three activists who held online events relating to the Tiananmen Square massacre anniversary or discussing the crisis in Hong Kong. None were given an explanation by Zoom.
The Chinese government informed us that this activity is illegal in China and demanded that Zoom terminate the meetings and host accounts. We did not provide any user information or meeting content to the Chinese government. We do not have a backdoor that allows someone to enter a meeting without being visible.
Related: Zoom admits cutting off activists' accounts in obedience to China
Beijing has said it will delay primary school students returning to school after three fresh coronavirus cases emerged in the capital – the first after two months of no infections in the city.
China has largely brought domestic coronavirus infections under control, and the majority of cases in recent months have been overseas nationals tested as they return home.
Afghanistan has declared a “public mobilisation” against Covid-19 as the number of confirmed infections passed 23,000.
In a WhatsApp message to reporters on Thursday, Ahmad Jawad Omani, the country’s new acting health minister called his five-part plan to fight against the virus “historic” and said “only a small part of health sector was to fight with coronavirus until today, but from now, all parts of the sector will get coordinated to fight against the virus. Today, I announce public mobilisation against coronavirus”.
According to the new plan, “from a clinic in a remote area to hospitals in the capital are mobilised to fight against the virus”.
Only government hospitals were allowed to treat Covid-19 patients in Afghanistan, but according to the plan, the private sector can now also treat and test.
Testing capacity will also be increased, but clinics with no testing labs are instructed to announce new patients through their symptoms. The acting health minister also said a mobile application will be created for health workers to upload new figures to.
Meanwhile, the country’s health ministry reported 656 new infections, taking the total to 23,546. The number of deaths in the country has risen by 20, to 446 fatalities. There have been 3,928 recoveries.
Most new cases (326) have been reported in the capital, Kabul, the country’s worst-affected area in both number of confirmed transmissions and deaths with 9,466 cases and 92 deaths.
Mohammad Yaghoub Heidari, the governor of Kabul, warned earlier this week “a catastrophe” is going on in the capital and the actual number of infections in Kabul is much higher than official figures show, maybe even “a million”.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be steering the live blog for the next few hours - as always feel free to get in touch with any comments and suggestions - I’ll certainly read them all and do my best to respond to as many as I can:
Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_
Germany’s health minister, Jens Spahn, has warned the nation against taking a carefree attitude towards the coronavirus, after the number of active cases in the country fell to around 5,300.
A total of 258 new cases were registered overnight, one of the lowest daily increases. He told a German broadcaster this morning: “We continue to have a low level of the virus, with new infections occurring every day, but on a scale that we can manage well … but we’re also seeing that from family parties to church services, the virus is still there.
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte is being questioned by prosecutors investigating the lack of a coronavirus lockdown of two towns in Lombardys Bergamo province that turned into one of the hardest-hit areas of the country’s outbreak.
Doctors and virologists have said the two-week delay in quarantining Alzano and Nembro allowed the virus to spread in Bergamo, which saw a 571% increase in excess deaths in March compared with the average of the previous five years.
For doctors and healthcare workers in India’s financial capital Mumbai who are grappling with surging coronavirus infections, the onset of the annual monsoon poses a serious threat - a new wave of patients with vector-borne diseases.
Already stretched by a shortage of medics and critical care beds, the situation in Mumbai might turn uglier, health experts warn, as cases of malaria, dengue, leptospirosis and encephalitis are expected to soar in coming months.
Twitter on Thursday said it removed more than 170,000 accounts tied to a Beijing-backed influence operation that deceptively spread messages favorable to the Chinese government, including some about the coronavirus.
The company suspended a core network of 23,750 highly active accounts, as well as a larger network of about 150,000 “amplifier” accounts used to boost the core accounts’ content.
The public health crisis caused by the Covid-19 epidemic in Europe is not over yet, the European Union’s top health official warned on Friday, urging governments to remain vigilant and plough ahead with testing and tracing the population.
“This is not behind us yet. We need to be vigilant,” the EU health commissioner, Stella Kyriakides, told EU health ministers in a video conference, amid fears of a fresh surge in infections as EU states gradually reopen business and borders and after mass protests in recent days across the continent.
People attending an upcoming Donald Trump rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, have been told they cannot sue if they contract coronavirus. The sign-up page for the president’s upcoming rally includes a disclaimer about the possibility of contracting the disease.
The president has implemented a policy that states rally attendees cannot sue the campaign or venue if they contract coronavirus at the event, the New York Times reports:
‘By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to Covid-19 exists in any public place where people are present,’ a statement on Mr. Trump’s campaign website informed those wishing to attend his June 19 rally in Tulsa, Okla. ‘By attending the rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to Covid-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.’
Beijing city government on Friday reported two new confirmed Covid-19 cases, marking the second consecutive day of new infections being reported in the Chinese capital.
If you have any stories and tips for the global liveblog please send them across to nazia.parveen@theguardian.com or follow me on Twitter https://twitter.com/NParveenG to send me a message.
Armenia said on Friday it had extended a state of emergency over the coronavirus outbreak until 13 July as the number of daily infections continues to rise.
Despite the extension of the state of emergency, almost all sectors of the Armenian economy are functioning after businesses reopened in early May to prevent it from collapsing.
Russia reported has reported 8,987 new cases of coronavirus today, bringing its nationwide tally of infections to 511,423.
Officials said 183 people had died in the last 24 hours, pushing the official national death toll to 6,715.
Earlier this week, an EU report said China and Russia had engaged in mass disinformation about the pandemic. Beijing has responded, saying yesterday that China is in fact the victim of misinformation, and accused the EU of speaking on behalf of the US.
The European commission had said Russia and China were running “targeted influence operations and disinformation campaigns in the EU, its neighbourhood, and globally”.
British Airways, easyJet and Ryanair have launched legal action against the UK government’s quarantine policy, asking for a judicial review to be heard as soon as possible, a statement from BA’s parent IAG said.
The airlines said earlier this week they would club together to try to end the 14-day quarantine rule for international arrivals which they say will deter travel and threaten more jobs.
Thailand will lift a nationwide curfew and ease more restrictions next week, a spokesman for its coronavirus taskforce said on Friday, after the country reported no local transmissions of the virus for 18 days.
Thailand is also planning to reopen to foreign visitors by creating so-called travel bubbles with countries that have also managed to contain the virus, though no target date was set, said Taweesin Wisanuyothin, a spokesman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration.
The Danish government plans to create a 10bn Danish crown ($1.52bn) fund to support companies hit by the coronavirus crisis, it said on Friday.
Companies with annual revenue over 500m crowns are eligible, the finance ministry said, and finance minister Nicolai Wammen said about 200 – none of which he named – would qualify.
South Korea will extend prevention and sanitation guidelines against coronavirus until daily new infections drop to single digits, the country’s health minister has said.
But he warned warned of a return to tough social distancing measures if needed.
Global demand for premium foods like wagyu beef, bluefin tuna and caviar has plunged, with thousands of restaurants shuttered and many economies sliding into recession amid the coronavirus pandemic.
As strict lockdown measures to contain the outbreak ravage global economic activity, Reuters reports that the luxury food industry could be among the worst hit since it heavily relies on restaurants and top hotels for demand for deluxe items from caviar to champagne.
The relatively cautious approach taken by Spain to reopening its borders to international visitors is coming under increasing pressure, reports El Pais today.
While the government in Madrid planning to reopen borders on 1 July, when it will also lift its requirement for a 14-day quarantine, the EU commissioner for home affairs insisted on the recommendation that internal borders must “reopen as soon as possible.
In a region where live music is everything – both for audiences and for performers heavily reliant on live appearances to make a living – the widespread cancellation of festivals across southern Africa has hit the music business hard.
Silence Charumbira has written this piece on how coronavirus has forced events including AfrikaBurn and Bushfire to cancel, leaving performers without promotional platforms and income.
Britain is learning today what a full month’s lockdown does to the UK’s economy and the data is not pretty: it slumped by 20.4% in April from the previous month as the coronavirus lockdown paralysed the country.
Richard Partington has that story here on a day when prime minister Boris Johnson is expected to come under sustained pressure from Conservative MPs to take further steps to open up the economy, amid calls for caution from other quarters.
Related: Britain's GDP falls 20.4% in April as economy is paralysed by lockdown
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan for today. I’m off to frantically clean my apartment before my in-laws arrive for a visit. The brilliant Ben Quinn is here to take over the blog.
Thank you to those of you who got in touch with us today – always much appreciated.
Related: Global report: WHO warns of accelerating Covid-19 infections in Africa
Three months into lockdown, things have moved on in the land of digital dance, from fun Instagram clips and online classes to some serious choreography. Here are the best of the lot:
Related: Street solos and a flock of swans: the best new dance created in lockdown
The British government is expected to backtrack on its Brexit plan to introduce full border checks with the EU from 1 January 2021 over fears of the economic impact of coronavirus, PA Media reports.
The cabinet office minister, Michael Gove, is anticipated to make an announcement on Friday over border operations for when Brexit fully comes into effect at the end of the transition period.
Related: Brexit: UK expected to backtrack on full EU border checks
Here are the latest developments from the last few hours:
Fu Xuejie, the wife of Dr Li Wenliang, has given birth to their son.
Li was praised as a whistleblower in China, and made headlines earlier this year after he was reprimanded for warning colleagues about the emergence of a new Sars-like virus. Li later contracted the virus himself, and died in hospital on 6 February.
Fu Xuejie, wife of Dr. #LiWenliang, gave birth to a baby boy today. Fu says this 2nd child is the last gift that Li left her. She was hospitalized after hearing that her husband died of #COVID19 in Feb., &had to lie to 1st child that Li had gone abroad. https://t.co/CsOzQH0YENpic.twitter.com/xZN62aDexX
China is seeking volunteers who work at state-owned companies and are traveling overseas to test two potential vaccines, Reuters is reporting.
There is no proven vaccine for the coronavirus yet, although many are in the works and mass trials for some are expected to be underway soon. A vaccine normally has to go through large-scale “phase 3” trials to observe to what extent they provide protection against infection before receiving regulatory approval.
In Beijing, a 52-year-old man who has no history of traveling outside the city or contact with anyone coming in has been diagnosed with Covid-19. He is the first local transmission case in China for several weeks.
The man lives in Xicheng District. On Wednesday he visited a clinic reporting an intermittent fever, chills and fatigue. He had no other symptoms, and had no relevant travel or contact history in the past two weeks.
Charles Anderson reports for the Guardian:
New Zealand is relaxing its borders to grant exemptions for certain workers – including America’s Cup sailors – and partners of New Zealand citizens to enter the country.
Related: New Zealand to relax borders for essential workers – and US America's Cup team
On Thursday, Tokyo reported 22 new infections, with the daily figure staying below 20 over the previous four days. Of the 22, six were connected to nightclubs and similar establishments, while 10 had unidentified transmission routes, according to the Kyodo news agency. The city has reported a total of 5,448 infections, by far the highest among Japan’s 47 prefectures.
The Tokyo alert, announced on 2 June, advises the city’s 14 million residents to exercise caution and will be reissued if cases average 20 or more for seven days in a row, if officials are unable to trace infection routes for more than half of the new cases, or if the total number of infections rises from one week to the next.
Tokyo is poised to end all restrictions on businesses next week after local authorities lifted a citywide “red alert” warning about a possible second wave of coronavirus infections.
Karaoke venues, game arcades and pachinko parlors will reopen today (Friday), and restaurants and pubs will be able to extend their hours from 10 pm to midnight, according to Japanese media reports.
Tokyo’s governor, Yuriko Koike, said the city had entered “a new stage of living with the coronavirus,” adding that authorities would expand testing and ensure medical facilities were able to cope with a resurgence of the virus, which is known to have infected more than 17,000 people in Japan and killed 922.
Koike said the number of new daily cases and unidentified transmission routes had stabilised, enabling the city to take another step towards resuming its economic and social life.
South Africa accounts for nearly 25% of Africa’s total cases.
“The majority of countries still have fewer than 1,000 reported cases,” said Doctor Matshidiso Moeti, the WHO’s regional director for Africa.
The speed the new coronavirus jumped from 100,000 to 200,000 confirmed cases in Africa shows just how quickly the pandemic is accelerating on the continent, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
According to an AFP tally, Africa topped the 200,000 mark on Tuesday.
There are 7,500,777 confirmed coronavirus infections worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University data. There have been 420,993 known deaths so far.
The true figures for deaths and infections are likely to be significantly higher due to time delays, differing testing rates and definitions, and suspected underreporting.
Please do get in touch with questions, comments, news and tips on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
The White House is exploring the possibility that travel from Mexico may be contributing to a new wave of coronavirus infections, rather than states moves toward reopening their economies, AP reports.
The notion was discussed at some length Thursday during a meeting of the administrations coronavirus task force in the White House Situation Room that focused on identifying commonalities between new outbreaks. Officials also considered how to surge response capabilities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was deploying teams to Arizona and other hotspots to try to trace the outbreaks and contain them.
In addition to Arizona, other states experiencing recent spikes of infections include California, Texas and North Carolina particularly within the Hispanic community. As a result, the task force is looking at whether those spikes may be tied to legal travel between the US and Mexico, which is experiencing an ongoing severe coronavirus outbreak.
Two officials familiar with the discussions described them to The Associated Press, speaking on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to publicly describe internal conversations.
Millions of children could be pushed into work by the coronavirus crisis, the UN said Friday as it braced for the first rise in child labour in two decades. In a joint brief, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNICEF, the UN children’s agency, noted that the number of children locked in child labour had declined by 94 million since 2000.
But the UN agencies warned that “the Covid-19 pandemic poses very real risks of backtracking.”
Fujifilm Holdings Corp will spend $928m to double capacity at a drug manufacturing facility in Denmark, which it has pledged to use in producing Covid-19 treatments, as the Japanese company steps up its pivot towards healthcare, Reuters reports.
The investment in Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies will expand production lines for bulk drug substances and antibody drugs, Fujifilm announced on Tuesday. It bought the facility in Hillerod, Denmark, in August from Biogen Inc for about $890m.
US president Donald Trump has implemented a policy that states rally attendees cannot sue the campaign or venue if they contract coronavirus at the event, the New York Times reports:
‘By clicking register below, you are acknowledging that an inherent risk of exposure to Covid-19 exists in any public place where people are present,’ a statement on Mr. Trump’s campaign website informed those wishing to attend his June 19 rally in Tulsa, Okla. ‘By attending the rally, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to Covid-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President, Inc.; BOK Center; ASM Global; or any of their affiliates, directors, officers, employees, agents, contractors or volunteers liable for any illness or injury.’
On a quiet street corner in a neighbourhood in Beijing known for families and retirees, Xue Min, 22 a recent graduate, swats her legs, fighting off mosquitoes, as she encourages passersby to browse the earrings and scrunchies she has laid out on a cloth, surrounded by fairy lights. “Have a look,” she says brightly to a couple that pause briefly before moving on.
Related: 'China's lifeblood': street hawkers make surprise return to fire up ailing economy
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has long made creating jobs for women central to his economic policy, but now women are suffering a bigger share of the pain as the country heads for its worst economic slump since World War Two, Reuters reports.
Helped by a worker shortage, female labour participation hit a decade-high of more than 70% under Abe’s campaign, often dubbed “Womenomics”. The catch: many women lack the job security of male workers, with more than half holding vulnerable part-time, contract or temporary jobs.
The number of such “non-regular” workers posted its biggest drop on record in April, declining by 970,000 to 2.02 million. Women accounted for 710,000 of the decline.
Mexico’s health ministry reported 4,790 new confirmed coronavirus infections along with 587 additional fatalities on Thursday, bringing the total in the country to 133,974 cases and 15,944 deaths.
The government has said the real number of infected people is significantly higher than the official count.
In the UK, local authorities have called on the government to suspend the controversial “no recourse to public funds” immigration status for the duration of the coronavirus pandemic, to prevent thousands from falling into destitution and homelessness.
High numbers of people who have this status attached to their visas have been approaching councils for emergency assistance during the pandemic. Many are struggling to survive during the exceptional circumstances of lockdown, with no safety net, according to the Local Government Association (LGA), which represents councils in England and Wales.
Related: Councils ask for UK to lift bars on emergency help for migrants
Brazil reported a total of 802,828 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Thursday, with 30,412 new infections in the last 24 hours in the world’s second worst outbreak after the United States.
With another 1,239 fatalities, the death toll in Brazil has reached 40,919, the health ministry said, the world’s third highest after the United States and the UK.
Stocks fell sharply Thursday on Wall Street as coronavirus cases in the US increased again, deflating recent optimism for a quick economic recovery and raising more doubts about how long the market’s scorching comeback can last, AP reports.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average sank more than 1,800 points, almost 7%, and the S&P 500 dropped 5.9%, its worst day since mid-March, when stocks went through repeated harrowing falls as the virus lockdowns began. The S&P 500 rallied 44.5% between late March and Monday, erasing most of its losses tied to the pandemic.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
I’m Helen Sullivan and I’ll be taking you through the latest news from around the world for the next few hours. Please do get in touch with questions, comments, news and tips on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.
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