Coronavirus live news: Beijing back into partial lockdown as new cluster emerges

Russia has more than doubled its official coronavirus death toll for April to 2,712 after changing how it classifies fatalities.

Officials warned that May’s death toll was likely to be even worse in Russia, which has the world’s third largest number of cases with 520,129.

The country has today reported 8,706 new cases after its number of new infections peaked in mid-May. The capital Moscow – the nation’s worst affected city – lifted tight lockdown measures last week.

We reported earlier (see 9.01am) that Russia had reported 8,706 new coronavirus cases, bringing the total number of people who have been infected by the virus to 520,129.

Authorities said 114 people had died of the virus in the last 24 hours, raising the official national death toll to 6,829. It comes after 8,987 new cases were announced on Friday.

Russia’s death toll has been much lower than in other countries with large outbreaks, raising questions over possible underreporting of deaths.

The April figures from Rosstat, the official statistics agency, include 1,270 deaths where the virus was the main cause. But they now also include deaths where the victim tested positive for the virus but it was not the main cause of death, AFP reported.

In April there were 435 deaths where the virus had a “significant influence” and 617 where it was present but did not play a major role, the agency said. The statistics also include 390 cases where the person initially tested negative to coronavirus, but it was later ruled to be the main cause of death.

The previously announced toll for April was 1,152.

A further 80 people have died from coronavirus in the UK, according to official figures showing deaths recorded in the last 24 hours.

The UK Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) will publish its overall toll later. It usually differs from the cumulative nations’totals due to variations in data collection.

DHSC said on Friday that 41,481 people had died in hospitals, care homes and the wider community after testing positive for coronavirus in the UK as of 5pm on Thursday, up by 202 from 41,279 the day before.

The government figures do not include all deaths involving Covid-19 across the UK, which is thought to have passed 52,000.

Right-wing protesters in London, UK, have clashed with police throughout the day, after an anti-racist protest was cancelled by organisers due to fears of violence.

Around 200 demonstrators near the Cenotaph – a key war memorial outside the prime minister’s residence – are currently facing off with police with some trying to push through the barriers following a day of disorder. Several hundreds anti-racism demonstrators have also gathered in Trafalgar Square.

All protesters must disperse by 5pm, though many are now being contained by police lines. It comes after the London mayor, Sadiq Khan, urged people to stay away from central London and defended the decision to board up the statue of Winston Churchill and other monuments.

Elsewhere in the UK, in a number of other cities including other parts of London, there were peaceful anti-racism protests.

Moving back to the anti-racism protests, about 2,000 people have demonstrated in Paris to denounce police brutality and entrenched racism which many believe France’s national doctrine of colour blindness has failed to eradicate.

Myriam Boicoulin, 31, who was born in the French Caribbean island of Martinique, said she was demonstrating because she wanted to be heard.

“The fact of being visible is enormous,” she said. “As a black woman living in mainland France, I’m constantly obliged to adapt, to make compromises, not make waves to be almost white, in fact. It’s the first time people see us. Let us breathe.”

The march in Paris was led by supporters of Adama Traoré, a French black man who died in police custody in 2016 in circumstances that remain unclear despite four years of autopsies. His death marked one of France’s most high-profile cases of alleged police brutality.

“We are all demanding the same thing – fair justice for everyone,” Traore’s sister Assa told the crowd. There were no charges made following his death.

Associated Press reported that angry shouts rose from the peaceful and racially diverse crowd as a small group of white extreme-right activists climbed a building overlooking the protest and unfurled a huge banner denouncing anti-white racism.

Police did not arrest the counter-demonstrators, but residents in the building tore part of the banner down, one raising his fist in victory. Officers prevented people attending the main rally from approaching the far-right activists.

Officers surrounded the intended march route, bracing for potential violence after scattered clashes at some previous demonstrations around France also inspired by the Black Lives Matter movement and George Floyd’s death in the US.

Paris police had ordered the closure of restaurants and shops, which had recently reopened after the coronavirus lockdown because they were along the route of the march (see 11.46am).

Italy, Germany, France and the Netherlands have signed a contract with AstraZeneca to supply European citizens with a coronavirus vaccine, Italy’s health minister said on Saturday.

The contract with the British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical company is for 400m doses of the vaccine, which was developed with the University of Oxford. The trial phase is already advanced and expected to end in the autumn, Roberto Speranza wrote on Facebook.

He added that a first batch of doses would be made available by the end of this year. However, AstraZeneca’s CEO, Pascal Soriot, could not guarantee the vaccine would work in an interview last month and said several would be required, though he expressed confidence.

The European commission received a mandate from EU governments on Friday to negotiate advance purchases of promising coronavirus vaccines, the EU’s top health official said, but it was unclear whether there would be enough money available.

It comes after AstraZeneca secured a deal with two US government agencies and Vanderbilt University to create antibodies to be used to treat and prevent Covid-19, Bloomberg reported.

AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford announced in April their agreement for the global development and distribution of the university’s potential vaccine aimed at preventing Covid-19 infection.

“We’re trailblazing here because we are not following the standard process, we are partnering with regulators both in the UK and the US, we’re working hand in hand with the [Food and Drug Administration], we are sharing data on a day to day basis and they have committed themselves to help look at our data as they come so by the time we finish the first [trial] program in August they can rapidly approve the vaccine,” Soriot told CNN in May.

He claimed that drug companies are competing against the virus, not against each other, and that AstraZeneca – among other manufacturers – was doing this for no profit. It has received $1bn from the US Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) for the development, production and delivery of the vaccine.

Researchers in Thailand began collecting samples from horseshoe bats to test them for coronavirus amid concerns they may pose a threat to local residents, the government has announced.

They plan to collect 300 bats over three days from a cave in the Chanthaburi province in the south-east of the country. The bats will be released following the tests. Thailand has 23 species of the horseshoe bat but there has not been an investigation before.

The source of the virus remains a matter of debate after it emerged in China late last year. The World Health Organization (WHO) in April said all available evidence suggests it originated in bats in China but it was not clear how the virus had jumped the species barrier to humans.

The research team in Thailand includes Supaporn Wacharapluesadee, who identified the country’s first case of Covid-19 in January as it became the first country outside China to record a case of the virus. It has so far reported 3,134 cases and 58 deaths

“The reason we need to investigate the horseshoe bat is because there are reports from China that the Covid-19 virus is similar to the virus found in the horseshoe bat,” Supaporn said.

Researchers from the National Parks department, Chulalongkorn hospital and Kasetsart University entered the cave on Thursday evening and re-emerged in the early hours of Friday with samples of bat blood, saliva and faeces.