Coronavirus live news: Norway advises citizens to avoid all travel abroad; Japan confirms record new infections

The UK’s international trade secretary Liz Truss must confirm if she knew one of her advisers approached the government about a deal for 50 million unusable face masks, a shadow minister said.

Shadow international trade minister Bill Esterson has demanded to know whether trade adviser Andrew Mills discussed a deal regarding the masks, which were supplied to the UK Government in April but cannot be used in the NHS because of safety concerns.

The masks were bought for NHS England from Ayanda Capital as part of a 252 million contract, but the government says because they use ear-loop fastenings rather than head loops, they may not fit tightly enough for clinical use.

The government disclosed in court papers that the original approach for the PPE contract came from a businessman called Andrew Mills who was a director at a company called Prospermill, which said it had secured exclusive rights to the full production capacity of a large factory in China and could offer a large quantity of masks almost immediately.

The legal document revealed Mr Mills requested DHSC’s contractual counterparty should be Ayanda rather than Prospermill, because Ayanda already had an established international banking infrastructure that could be used for the necessary payments overseas, whereas Prospermill’s own bank had indicated it could take some time to set this up on its own account.

The Government also said in court papers that Mr Mills is an adviser to the UK Board of Trade and a senior board adviser at Ayanda.

Mills told the BBC his position with the trade board played no part in the awarding of the contract.

The government has confirmed in court papers that the masks, which are now in the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) logistic chain, will not be used in the NHS.

Tim Horlick, chief executive of Ayanda Capital, insists the masks are not unsafe or unusable, adding that none of his company’s products have ever been rejected by the DHSC for any reason.

“The masks met all Government specifications and standards, the masks are not unusable or unsafe and the Government has not wasted any money in purchasing these masks,” Mr Horlick said.

He said his company had supplied the DHSC with the masks they requested, approved and ordered, adding that it may be that the internal NHS requirements changed because of the fast-moving situation at the time.

The Good Law Project and EveryDoctor, which are suing the Government over its Ayanda contract, estimate the 50 million masks would have cost more than 150 million.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters: “I’m very disappointed that any consignment of PPE should turn out not to be fit for purpose.”

The US will need to have independent experts review Covid-19 vaccine candidates before approval, the country’s top drug regulator said on Friday, offering reassurance his agency would not cut corners in the race to roll out a vaccine.

US Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said vaccine candidates will be reviewed according to established legal and regulatory standards for medical products, including by an outside advisory committee.

“Given the widespread potential use of a Covid-19 vaccine, transparent discussion at FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee will be needed…”, Hahn and colleagues wrote in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

The US government’s Operation Warp Speed aims to expedite development of a vaccine and therapies to treat the novel coronavirus, and the emphasis on speed has provoked public anxiety about the safety and effectiveness of these vaccines, Hahn and the other officials wrote.

“There is a line separating the government’s efforts to focus resources and funding to scale vaccine development from FDA’s review processes, which are rooted in federal statute and established FDA regulations,” they added.

Earlier this week, the country’s infectious diseases chief, Anthony Fauci, told Reuters political pressure will not determine when a coronavirus vaccine is approved.

President Donald Trump has said it was possible for the country to have a coronavirus vaccine before the November 3 election.

• India’s official coronavirus case tally hit two million on Friday, doubling in three weeks as the pandemic sweeps into smaller cities and rural areas. A record daily jump of more than 60,000 fresh infections was recorded, according to health ministry data, making India only the third country to surpass the two million milestone after the US and Brazil.
• The number of daily coronavirus infections in Italy jumped 38% higher on Friday, with 552 confirmed cases registered compared to the previous day. Italy has not seen a such a high daily new caseload since late May.
• The Democrats and Republicans remain in a stalemate over the next US coronavirus relief package. House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said they offered to compromise on a topline of roughly $2 trillion for the package, but treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows rejected that offer.
• New York schools can bring children back to classrooms for the start of the school year, governor Andrew Cuomo has announced. The Democratic governor’s decision clears the way for schools to offer at least some days of classes alongside remote learning.
• More than 5,400 people died in Russia from coronavirus in June, the state statistics service said on Friday, one thousand more people than previously announced by the authorities. The official death toll rose on Friday by 119 to 14,725.
• The number of cases recorded in France was 2,288 on Friday compared with 1,604 on Thursday. The country has around 235,000 cases in total, according to Johns Hopkins University’s tracker.
• The European Union has removed Morocco from its safe list of countries from which the bloc allows non-essential travel after a review by EU ambassadors. The move leaves 10 countries on the new list, which takes effect August 8, after the EU also excluded Algeria last week.
• Hong Kong has announced free mass testing for all residents, amid a third wave of Covid-19 infections. More than half the city’s total number of infections were detected in July, with 12 days in a row with cases above 100. The death toll reached 46.
• Norway has advised its citizens to avoid all travel abroad, even to countries with few Covid-19 cases, amid a series of measures aimed at preventing a resurgence of the epidemic.
• Thousands of items of personal protective equipment (PPE) and 500 hospital beds have been destroyed in the Beirut explosion. UN agencies are scrambling to support victims, while the its high commissioner has described the ongoing situation as “really dire” according to Reuters.

The St Louis Cardinals’ baseball game against the Chicago Cubs has been postponed after another St Louis player tested positive for Covid-19.

The Cardinals have been off since last Friday, when two players returned positive coronavirus tests. Eight players in total have tested positive, including star catcher Yadier Molina.

The Democrats and Republicans remain in a stalemate over the next US coronavirus relief package.

House speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said they offered to compromise on a topline of roughly $2 trillion for the package, but treasury secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House chief of staff Mark Meadows rejected that offer.

Walking into his next meeting with Pelosi and Schumer, Mnuchin was asked about whether he was open to a $2 trillion topline, which would be about $1 trillion more than originally proposed in the Republican bill.

Mnuchin told reporters, “That’s a non-starter.”

Pelosi said the big difference with the White House is over food aid.

A tweet from the World Health Organization’s director-general.

Racial disparities in the US coronavirus epidemic extend to children, according to two government reports released on Friday.

One of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention studies looked children with Covid-19 who needed hospitalisation.

Hispanic children were hospitalized at a rate eight times higher than white kids, and Black children were hospitalized at a rate five times higher, it found.

“A number of possible factors could explain the disparities”, said Dr Cyrus Shahpar, from advocacy group Resolve to Save Lives.

The second study examined cases of a rare virus-associated syndrome in kids. It found that nearly three-quarters of the children with the syndrome were either Hispanic or Black, well above their representation in the general population.

The second CDC report focused on 570 kids diagnosed with a rare coronavirus-linked inflammatory condition. Eight of them died.