Coronavirus live news: Spain reports biggest rise in daily infections since lockdown lifted in June
Zimbabwe’s agriculture minister Perrance Shiri, a retired general who commanded an army unit accused of a notorious massacre in the 1980s, died from Covid-19, the president has said.
Shiri, who was also involved in the ouster of longtime ruler Robert Mugabe in a 2017 coup, died on Wednesday aged 65.
The state-owned daily The Herald said president Emmerson Mnangagwa told mourners “it is confirmed that Minister Shiri died of Covid-19”.
Local independent media had said on Wednesday that Shiri had been quarantined at a private hospital after he was exposed to coronavirus by his driver, who reportedly died at the weekend.
Shiri became Zimbabwe’s first high-profile personality to die from the virus that is fast spreading in the country, which has a weak health system.
Zimbabwe has 2,879 confirmed virus cases, including 41 deaths.
Shiri was commander of an elite North Korean-trained unit, the Fifth Brigade, that cracked down on a revolt in the western province of Matabeleland in the newly independent Zimbabwe.
Known as the Gukurahundi massacres, the operation claimed some 20,000 lives, according to the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Zimbabwe, a figure supported by Amnesty International.
Shiri served for years as commander of the air force before taking up a post as land and agriculture minister under Mnangagwa, who succeeded Mugabe.
Major League Baseball is updating its coronavirus safety measures after a 17th player on the Miami Marlins tested positive for Covid-19 on Thursday – less than a week after all 30 clubs opened a shortened, delayed season in empty stadiums.
The outbreak, which first came to light on Monday after the team played a three-game series on the road against the Philadelphia Phillies, prompted MLB to postpone all Marlins games through at least Sunday amid doubts the team will be able to reopen its season as planned Tuesday at home.
The Marlins, who have quarantined in Philadelphia since Monday, could face another mandated self-isolation under Miami regulations depending on their travel before returning to Florida.
In the wake of the outbreak, the commissioner’s office has reportedly ordered all teams to use surgical masks instead of cloth ones, encouraged players not to leave hotels in road cities except for games and mandated every club to travel with a virus protocol compliance officer to ensure rules are followed.
Dr Anthony Fauci, the US’s top infectious disease expert and a key member of the White House coronavirus task force, expressed concern over the outbreakwhen asked about it during an appearance on ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday morning:
This could put it in danger. I don’t believe they need to stop, but we just need to follow this and see what happens with other teams on a day-by-day basis.
The Phillies said Thursday there were no positive results among players from Wednesday’s testing.
Two members of the club’s backroom staff, however, did test positive, leading to the postponement of this weekend’s series against the Toronto Blue Jays and the cancellation of all activities at the team’s home ground.
The pandemic had already forced MLB to delay and truncate the familiar 162-game, six-month season to a 60-game, 67-day sprint with a number of rule changes designed to speed up the game and protect the players and umpires.
About a dozen major leaguers have opted out of the season entirely, citing the health risks stemming from Covid-19.
Others who are playing, like Washington Nationals relief pitcher Sean Doolittle, have expressed hesitationover the enterprise as case numbers continue to surge throughout the country. On 5 July Doolittle said:
We’re trying to bring baseball back during a pandemic that’s killed 130,000 people. We’re way worse off as a country than we were in March when we shut this thing down.
And, like, look where the other developed countries are in their response to this. We haven’t done any of the things that other countries have done to bring sports back.
Sports are like the reward of a functioning society. And we’re trying to just bring it back, even though we’ve taken none of the steps to flatten the curve.
Air France-KLM has announced a second-quarter loss of €2.6bn ($3.1bn), thanks to grounded flights during the virus pandemic, adding that the twin airlines must “significantly reduce” the workforce.
“Activity levels were close to zero in April and May 2020,” compared to last year, rising to just 8% in June as government progressively eased their Covid-19 lockdown rules, the Franco-Dutch airline group said in its report.
“Nevertheless, there is limited visibility on the demand recovery curve as customer booking behaviour is much more short-term oriented than before the Covid-19 crisis, especially on the Long Haul network,” the report cautioned.
“The exceptional support of the French and Dutch governments has provided Air France-KLM with the liquidity needed to weather the crisis and ensure a gradual recovery in business,” along with cost-cutting measures, Group CEO Benjamin Smith said.
Air France is to benefit from €7bn in French loans either from or backed by the state, along with an expected €2-4bn in aid from the Dutch government.
The French government has insisted that the help is “not a blank cheque” and is dependent on the airline notably becoming greener by reducing carbon emissions, using more modern aircraft and cutting domestic routes.
In order to carry out the company’s “reconstruction plan” Air France and KLM “must significantly reduce the number of employees,” the quarterly report said.
Earlier this month Air France management announced plans to eliminate 7,580 jobs at the airline and its regional unit Hop! by the end of 2022
KLM has already launched a voluntary departure plan to which 2,000 staff have subscribed.
Just one day before a federal jobless benefit was set to expire, the US Congress was no closer on Thursday to a deal to extend or replace the extra $600-per-week in payments to tens of millions thrown out of work by the coronavirus pandemic.
Senate Republicans were discussing a way to hold a vote, possibly early next week, on just the unemployment benefit.
But there were no signs that Democrats, who have been resisting such a narrow response, would go along.
With little prospect of having to be in Washington to vote on a coronavirus-response bill this week, the Senate was mulling beginning its weekend immediately and returning on Monday – after the unemployment insurance benefit has expired.
Democrats have been pushing for extending the jobless benefit as part of a $3tn coronavirus-aid bill the US House of Representatives passed in March, while Republicans want $1tn overall.
They have proposed a $200 weekly benefit, which would come in addition to state unemployment payments.
The past four days of private talks involving top White House and congressional officials have yielded no tangible results, and much of Thursday was spent with Republicans and Democrats criticising each other.
Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said:
Republicans don’t want this aid to expire.
But the Speaker and the Democratic Leader say they won’t agree to anything unless the programme pays people more to stay home than to work.
He was referring to house speaker Nancy Pelosi and senate democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
Besides the $600-per-week supplemental unemployment benefit expiring Friday, a federal moratorium that prevented housing evictions ended last week, leaving untold numbers of Americans at risk of losing their homes.
Congress has already passed aid packages totaling $3tn to alleviate the effects of the virus, which has killed 150,000 Americans.
Republicans oppose a Democratic call for nearly $1tn to aid state and local governments, while Democrats reject a Republican plan to prevent liability lawsuits for businesses and schools as they reopen during the pandemic.
Some Republicans, such as senator Mitt Romney, continued pushing for a stop-gap measure to prevent unemployed people from being left without any federal benefits that are on top of state aid.
“I do think that we need to have a temporary program that is put in place so we don’t have a gap in people’s receipts,” Romney said.
The coronavirus crisis could set back Latin America and the Caribbean by a decade as countries endure faltering economies and rising poverty, the UN economic commission for the region and the World Health Organization have said.
Poverty in the region is forecast to climb 7 percentage points compared with last year to engulf an additional 45 million people, according to a report by the WHO and the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC).
The number of unemployed people is expected to rise to 44 million, an increase of more than 18 million compared with last year, while the region’s economy is projected to shrink 9.1%, the report said.
Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, said:
The Americas are at risk of losing years of health gains in a matter of months. This is tragic.
The report warned the coronavirus pandemic could cause a “lost decade” if income per capita drops to levels not seen since 2010, as forecast.
As part of the economic shocks, 2.7 million formal businesses in the region are expected to close, the report said.
Etienne said governments need to simultaneously work at solutions for public health and the economy.
Countries must avoid thinking they must make a choice between reopening economies and protecting health of their people. This is a false choice.
Economic activity cannot resume unless we have the virus under control.
Wisconsin has made wearing masks mandatory and declared a public health emergency, after an increase in community spread and rise in Covid-19 cases.
Governor Tony Evers has ordered residents to wear masks when indoors and not in a private residence, joining dozens of other US state leaders mandating face coverings to slow the spread of coronavirus.
Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray taking over the coronavirus live blog for the next few hours.
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Spain recorded its highest daily increase in the number of coronavirus cases since lockdown was lifted on 21 June. On Thursday, 1,229 new infections were reported, topping 1,000 for the second day in a row.
Florida recorded a record daily rise in Covid-19 deaths for the third day in a row, bringing the death toll to 6,709, the eighth highest in the United States. Florida also reported 9,956 new cases, bringing its total infections to over 461,000, the second highest in the US behind California.
Japan recorded a record high for new cases for the second day in a row. At least 1,274 cases were reported on Thursday, including a record 367 in Tokyo, where officials are considering issuing its own version of a state of emergency depending on the number of cases in the coming days.
The UK had the highest level of excess deaths in Europe during the pandemic, according to the Office for National Statistics. Around 65,000 more people than usual have died from all causes across the United Kingdom so far this year, the highest total in Europe, with numbers in England noticeably higher than the other four nations.
The US economy suffered its worst quarter since the second world war as GDP shrunk by 32.9%. The government figures, revealed on Thursday, showed more signs of the pandemic’s heavy toll on the country’s economy.
Libya’s internationally recognised government in Tripoli will impose a full lockdown in areas of the country it controls following a sharp rise in coronavirus cases.
France ruled out a “catastrophic” second national lockdown despite a rise in coronavirus infections. The prime minister Jean Castex said the priority was still prevention, as a second national lockdown would be catastrophic, both socially and economically.
Major League Baseball is looking at shortening doubleheaders while the Miami Marlins have had another player test positive for Covid-19, according to multiple reports on Thursday.
The latest coronavirus positive for the Miami Marlins, as reported by ESPN citing unnamed sources, brings the team total to 17 players and two coaches over the past week.
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French health authorities reported 1,377 additional confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Wednesday, at 186,573, bringing the moving 7-day average above the 1,000 threshold for the first time since the first half of May, when France eased its lockdown.
In a statement, authorities said 381 people were in ICU units due to the disease, the first time that figure has increased on a daily basis in 16 weeks.
There were 16 new deaths from the disease, taking the total to 30,254, a figure higher than the seven-day moving average of 10.
Ireland reported its highest daily number of Covid-19 cases for two months on Thursday, with 85 cases confirmed compared to an average of around 20 per day during the past two weeks. That was the highest daily number reported in Ireland since late May.
“Today may be a blip associated with a number of specific clusters or it may be a sign of something more significant,” the acting chief medical officer Ronan Glynn told a news conference. “I hope that this is a blip.”
