Coronavirus live news: Hong Kong and California see record daily cases; ‘huge discrepancy’ in South Africa death toll

The director-general of the World Health Organization has criticised US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for “untrue and unacceptable” allegations” about the health agency chief’s relationship with China.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said WHO was focused on saving lives as he condemned the reported comments by Pompeo at a closed-door event this week in London.

British newspapers reported that Pompeo claimed Tedros had been bought by the Chinese government.

“The comments are untrue and unacceptable, and without any foundation for that matter”, Tedros told reporters in Geneva.

“If there is one thing that really matters to us and which should matter to the entire international community, its saving lives. And WHO will not be distracted by these comments.”

Critics say the Trump administration has been trying to distract attention from its own failings in managing the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, which has the most confirmed cases and virus-related deaths in the world.

In recent months, the administration has repeatedly criticised WHO’s handling of the pandemic and its alleged deference to Beijing.

President Trump has ordered the US to withdraw next year from the agency it has bankrolled and supported for decades.

The White House has released a readout from President Trump’s call today with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Today, President Donald J. Trump spoke with President Vladimir Putin of Russia. President Trump and President Putin discussed efforts to defeat the coronavirus pandemic while continuing to reopen global economies,” the readout says.

“The two leaders also discussed critical bilateral and global issues. President Trump reiterated his hope of avoiding an expensive three-way arms race between China, Russia, and the United States and looked forward to progress on upcoming arms control negotiations in Vienna.”

The readout makes no mention of Trump pressing Putin on reports that Russia offered bounties to Taliban insurgents to kill American troops.

The US president also does not appear to have asked his Russian counterpart about allegations that Kremlin-backed hackers targeted coronavirus vaccine researchers in the US, the UK and Canada.

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, says the country’s coronavirus cases have risen above 400,000.

Ramaphosa said the cabinet had decided that all public schools should be closed for the next four weeks with some exceptions.

This is an interesting finding. Covid-19 lockdowns worldwide led to the longest and most pronounced reduction in human-linked seismic vibrations ever recorded, sharpening scientists’ ability to hear earth’s natural signals and detect earthquakes according to a study.

In the research, published in the journal Science, scientists found that human-linked earth vibrations dropped by an average of 50% between March and May this year.

“The 2020 seismic noise quiet period is the longest and most prominent global anthropogenic seismic noise reduction on record,” they wrote.

Beginning in China in late January, and followed by Europe and the rest of the world in March to April, researchers saw “a wave of quietening” as worldwide lockdown measures to slow the coronavirus pandemic took hold.

The relative quiet allowed scientists to “listen in” in more detail on the earth’s natural vibrations, said Stephen Hicks, a seismologist at Imperial College London who co-led the work.

The global death toll from coronavirus has passed 625,000, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.

The figure stands at 625,005 with the US having the most deaths, with 143,701.

Brazil has the second-highest number of deaths with 82,771 followed by the UK with about 45,000.

France’s public health authority said on Thursday there had been a significant rise in new cases of people suffering from Covid-19, as the number of deaths in the country edged up.

The number of deaths in France from Covid-19 rose by 10 from the previous day to 30,182, the sixth highest toll in the world.

The number of confirmed cases rose by 1,000, as people adhered less to social distancing measures and increased testing led to the discovery of new clusters in parts of the country.

• Covid-19 cases in the US passed four million on Thursday. A Reuters tally showed the average number of new cases in the country is now rising by more than 2,600 every hour, the highest in the world.
• Fresh coronavirus restrictions have been introduced in some areas of Spain amid surging infection rates. Murcia, in the south-east of Spain, sealed off 30,000 people in the town of Totana on Thursday, barring anyone from entering or leaving, while Madrid authorities have urged citizens to wear a mask even at home when they are with people they don’t live with.
• A French hospital is trialling a breathalyser-style coronavirus test. The National Centre of Scientific Research at la Croix-Rousse hospital in Lyon is testing patients with the machine that enables them to breathe into a tube to see if they have the virus in a matter of seconds.
• Global cases of Covid-19 have passed 15.2m. According to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus map, the total number of recorded global cases stands at 15,291,554, while global deaths total 624,742.
• South Africa has recorded 60% more excess deaths than expected. The country saw about 17,000 extra deaths from natural causes – or 50% more than would normally be expected between early May and mid-July, scientists have said, suggesting many more people are dying of Covid-19 than shown in official figures.
• Record 366 new coronavirus infections reported in Japan’s capital. Thursday’s figure took cumulative infections to more than 10,000 in Tokyo, topping a daily high of 293 cases last week, as the city’s government declared its highest alert against the disease.

Berlin’s bondage studios and erotic massage parlours can reopen for business, after a court decided that appending them to a blanket closure of brothels to help contain the coronavirus pandemic was discriminatory.

Thursday’s ruling came after the owners of a parlour offering intimate massages and a BDSM studio sought an injunction to overturn a city-wide ban on all sex work.

The court agreed that the risk of spreading the virus in a brothel was far higher, and that the applicants’ businesses could reopen, provided they adhered to all sanitation rules, including the wearing of masks.

“In [their] case … there is no especially close contact between the service provider and the client,” the court said. “The service is strictly limited to contact by hand, ensuring greater distancing as a rule.”

Brothels were different for other reasons, the court added, including the fact that sex involved a dramatically elevated breathing rate, which increased the risk of spreading infection.

Last month, sex workers in the port of Hamburg demonstrated in protest against rules preventing them from working during the pandemic. The ban was discriminatory since other entertainment businesses had been allowed to reopen, they said.

Kuwait will shorten its nightly curfew and reopen hotels and mosques next week in the latest relaxation of its coronavirus restrictions, the government said on Thursday.

The Gulf country said it would enter “phase three” of its coronavirus restrictions on 28 July, enabling taxis to operate and resorts as well as hotels to reopen.

In addition, all mosques would be open for Eid al-Adha prayers, the Center for Government Communication (CGC) said on Twitter. Muslims expect the holiday to begin on 31 July. Until now, only some mosques had been allowed to operate.

The curfew put in place to limit the spread of the virus will begin an hour later at 9pm (1800 GMT), and end two hours earlier at 3am (midnight GMT), it said. The decision will be reviewed by the cabinet after the Eid al-Adha break.

The cabinet also decided to end the isolation of the Farwaniya district on Sunday. It is the last isolated area in the country, which has recorded 61,872 coronavirus infections, and 421 deaths.

Regional authorities across Spain have introduced fresh coronavirus restrictions aimed at stamping out a surge in infections that continues to defy efforts at containment and is damaging tourism.

New cases had slowed to a trickle in June, before a nationwide lockdown was lifted, but since then more than 280 clusters have been detected, with wealthy Catalonia the worst affected, leaving hotels largely empty and bars shutting down.

Health ministry data showed 2,615 new cases across Spain on Thursday, compared with a daily average of just 132 in June.

In Catalonia, nearly 8,000 cases were diagnosed in the last 14 days – almost half of the 16,410 detected throughout the country – despite guidelines for residents of regional capital Barcelona to stay at home.

Murcia, in the south east of Spain, sealed off 30,000 people in the town of Totana on Thursday, barring anyone from entering or leaving after 55 cases linked to a bar were detected there.

And, in a deepening spat between regional and central authorities, Madrid is pushing the central government to impose stricter controls on the city’s Barajas airport after more than 70 passengers landed in the capital while infected.

Madrid authorities also urged citizens to wear a mask even at home, when they are with people they don’t live with.

Promoting a similar message, the Canary Islands launched a graphic publicity campaign in which a family party turns into tragedy when the grandfather ends up lying unconscious on a hospital bed after contracting Covid-19. “A simple family gathering can bring you as a present 40 days in a coma, or even death,” the slogan reads.

Failing to bring the epidemic under control could spell disaster for Spain’s tourism sector, which accounts for some 12% of economic output and has begun a tentative reopening after hotel occupancy more than halved in the first six months of the year.

Fitbit and other wearable devices typically linked to exercise are being studied as ways to identify people who are potentially infected with Covid-19 before symptoms appear, when they can unknowingly spread the disease.

Changes in heart rate, respiratory rate, and other biometrics measured constantly by the devices may flag the early stages of virus infection, so an otherwise healthy-looking person knows to self-isolate and seek a coronavirus test, researchers say.

“When you get ill, even before you know it, your body starts changing, your heart rate goes up,” said Professor Michael Snyder of Stanford University School of Medicine.

Stanford researchers are among several groups examining whether wearable fitness devices such as the Fitbit or Apple Watch can provide an early warning. Snyder’s team enrolled 5,000 people in the study and studied historical smartwatch data from 31 users who tested positive for the virus.

Of those 31, all of their data indicated infection before symptoms appeared. Wearable devices picked up the signals of infection early – before symptoms appeared – in an average of three days.

In one case, the team found that a smartwatch was able to spot the first signal of potential Covid-19 infection nine days before more obvious symptoms were reported.

“We can tell when someone’s getting ill before symptoms. That’s super powerful,” Snyder said. “You can tell people to stay at home. Don’t go out, infect other people.”

An influential former Chinese property executive and critic of Xi Jinping has been ousted from China’s ruling Communist party, a notice from the Beijing district government said on Thursday.

Ren Zhiqiang, the former chairman of the state-controlled property developer Huayuan Real Estate Group, called Xi a “clown” over a speech he made in February about government efforts to battle the coronavirus.

Ren went missing in March, three of his friends told Reuters at the time. Beijing’s municipal anti-corruption watchdog later said he was under investigation for a “serious disciplinary violation”.

In a notice on Thursday night, the watchdog said Ren had been ousted from the party because he was in “severe violation of discipline and law”.

It accused Ren of “losing faith”, “not being aligned with the party on important matters of principle”, “vilifying the image of party and country” and being disloyal and dishonest to the party.

According to the notice, Ren also used official funds on golf expenses, used office and residential spaces provided for free by businessmen, and unlawfully earned huge profits.

Ren’s “unlawful gains” have been confiscated and he will be charged in court, the notice said.

The notice made no mention of the article in which Ren also said a lack of free press and speech had prevented the coronavirus outbreak from being tackled sooner, causing the situation to worsen.

The total number of coronavirus cases reported in the United States passed 4 million on Thursday, reflecting a rapid acceleration of infections detected in the country since the first case was recorded on 21 January, a Reuters tally of state totals has shown.

It took the country 98 days to reach 1 million cases, but just 16 days to go from 3 million to 4 million, according to the tally.

The average number of new US cases is now rising by more than 2,600 every hour, the highest rate in the world.

As the pandemic has spread widely over the country, moving from the early epicentre of New York to the south and west, federal, state and local officials have clashed over how to fight it, including over how and when to ease social and economic restrictions aimed at curbing the infection rate.

Whether to order the wearing of masks, a common practice in the rest of the world and recommended by the federal government’s own health experts, has become highly politicised, with some Republican governors in hard-hit states particularly resistant.

Donald Trump, who faces falling poll numbers over his handling of the health crisis ahead of an election in November, has long resisted wearing a mask but this week encouraged Americans to do so.

The Miami mayor, Francis Suarez, said on Thursday said he believed his city’s strict rule on mask-wearing is making a difference, citing improving numbers there.

“The remediation efforts that we’ve taken, including the mask in public rule, are working,” he told CNN.

Florida reported a record one-day increase in Covid-19 deaths on Thursday with 173 lives lost, according to the state health department.

On Wednesday, Covid-19 deaths rose by more than 1,100 for a second day in a row, including record single-day increases in fatalities in Alabama, California, Nevada and Texas.

The daily death tally is still well below levels seen in April, when on average 2,000 people a day died from the virus.