Coronavirus live updates: Bolsonaro hides Brazil death figures; pope warns Italians not to let their guard down

Iran’s spike in new infections is due to increased testing, the health ministry said on Sunday.

The government appeared to have brought the virus under control a month ago, but a second wave of the virus has steadily been gathering pace.

“The main reason for rising numbers is that we started identifying [people] with no or light symptoms,” said the health ministry’s head epidemiologist Mohammad-Mehdi Gouya.

There have been 171,789 confirmed cases in Iran, and the country’s death toll stands at 8,281, according to Johns Hopkins tracker.

The number of coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia has passed 100,000, according to official figures.

The ministry of health reported 3,045 new cases on Sunday, taking the total number of cases in the country to 101,914, the BBC reports.

The number of new daily cases exceeded 3,000 for the first time on Saturday.

The official number of deaths from the virus is 712, according to the Sunday figures.

For the first time since 20 March the country has reported zero deaths of people with Covid-19.

Scotland’s official death toll stays at 2,415, but adding suspected cases the most up-to-date figure is 3,964, STV News reports.

Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister of Scotland, urged people to digest the news with caution.

“We can’t read too much into a single day’s figures – and we know registration of deaths are relatively low at weekends – but nevertheless this is a headline we’ve all longed to see,” Sturgeon tweeted.

Singapore won’t return to the open and connected global economy that existed before the island nation went into a partial lockdown two months ago, Bloomberg reports.

Singaporeans will have to prepare for a different, tougher future with rising unemployment as companies work to cope with slowing demand and movement restrictions from various governments, prime minister Lee Hsien Loong said in a televised address on Sunday.

Loong hinted that the city state might distance itself from its previously open, globalist approach that helped it become a hub for trade, investment and the financial market.

“Countries will have less stake in each other’s wellbeing,” he said. “They will fight more over how the pie is shared, rather than work together to enlarge the pie for all. It will be a less prosperous world, and also a more troubled one.”

The Philippines reported nine more fatalities from coronavirus on Sunday, taking its total death toll to 1,003.

The south-east Asian country also recorded 555 more infections, bringing its total number of confirmed cases to 21,895, the department of health said in a bulletin, according to Reuters.

The city of New Delhi on Sunday ordered many of its hospital beds to be reserved solely for residents of the Indian capital, as the number of Covid-19 infections continued to rise, Reuters reports.

India on Sunday registered 9,971 new coronavirus cases, taking the country’s tally to 246,628 cases, with 6,929 deaths. The case numbers lags behind only the US, Brazil, Russia, UK and Spain.

New Delhi city alone has registered more than 10% of the country’s infection cases, making it the third worst-affected part of the country after the western state of Maharashtra, home to financial capital Mumbai, and southern Tamil Nadu state.

“Delhi is in big trouble … corona cases are rising rapidly,” state chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said in a video message on Twitter, where he announced that private and city government-run hospitals will be reserved for Delhi residents.

“If we open Delhi hospitals for patients from all over, where will Delhi residents go when they get infected with coronavirus?”

Typically about 60-70% of patients admitted to hospitals in Delhi are people traveling from other states to get treatment as the city’s hospitals.

A Delhi government coronavirus mobile app showed the city of more than 20 million people had 8,049 Covid-19 beds, but more than half were already occupied. Of the 60 hospitals, 11 had no beds available, the app showed on Sunday.

The Delhi city government has issued an order saying hospitals must admit every patient from the city with coronavirus symptoms, following complaints from some people on social media that people were being refused treatment.

Malta reluctantly allowed 425 migrants held offshore for more than a month to disembark on Sunday after a group of them threatened to kidnap the crew of the chartered boats where they were being held, authorities said, according to Reuters.

Prime minister Robert Abela said the government had been forced to act after the crew of one of the boats called him directly for help.
“They gave us half an hour to act or they would kidnap the crew,” he said in a televised interview.

He said authorities decided against boarding the vessel by force and subduing the migrants after the military warned of the risk of injury to migrants and service personnel.

State-broadcaster TVM said the vessel was escorted to Valletta harbour by two army patrol boats.

Malta’s government started putting rescued migrants on chartered tourist boats at the end of April after insisting that Malta’s harbours were closed because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

AstraZeneca has approached its rival Gilead Sciences about a potential merger, Bloomberg News reported on Sunday.

Any merger, which would be the biggest healthcare deal on record, would bring together two of the companies leading the pharmaceutical industry’s efforts to develop a vaccine and treatments for Covid-19.

A combination of the two would be valued at about £200bn. AstraZeneca, which is valued at £110bn, recently overtook Royal Dutch Shell to become the UK’s largest company by market value. Gilead was valued at about $96bn (£74bn) at Friday night’s closing price.

Pope Francis has warned Italians to not let their guard down against coronavirus, now that infection rates have fallen, and urged them to obey government rules on social distancing and the wearing of masks.

Francis, addressing several hundred people in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday blessing, reacted to applause that broke out when he said their presence, albeit reduced, was a sign that Italy had overcome the acute phase of the pandemic.

“Be careful. Don’t cry victory too soon,” he cautioned them, departing from his prepared text, Reuters reports.

Nearly 34,000 people have died in Italy from the coronavirus, the fourth highest toll in the world after the United States, Britain and Brazil.

The number of daily deaths in Italy has fallen from nearly 1,000 several months ago to 72 on Saturday. Italy entered the latest phase of an easing of restriction on 3 June, when people were allowed to travel between regions again.

However, some Italians, particularly young people, have flouted remaining rules on social distancing and wearing masks in public places. Authorities have warned of the danger of a second wave.

“We still have to follow the rules,” Francis said. “Thank God, we are leaving the worst part, but always by obeying the rules that the authorities have stipulated,” he said.

Istanbul residents flocked to the city’s shores and parks on the first weekend with no coronavirus lockdown measures in place since 10 April, prompting a reprimand from the country’s health minister who warned that the pandemic still poses a threat, the Associated Press reports.

Images on social media and in the news media showed crowds picnicking and partying Saturday night without heeding social distancing or wearing masks.

Health minister Fahrettin Koca urged people to wear masks and keep their distance.

Restaurants, cafes, gyms, parks, beaches and museums began reopening Monday and domestic flights resumed.

Turkey has reported 4,669 deaths from Covid-19 and 169,218 confirmed infection cases.

A decision by the Interior Ministry to continue a weekend curfew in 15 provinces, including Istanbul, was overturned Friday by president Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

In a series of tweets, the president said he was reversing the decision on grounds that it would lead to different negative social and economic consequences.

Turkey opted for short weekend and holiday curfews during the pandemic instead of a total lockdown, fearing the negative effects on its already troubled economy.

People aged 65 and older and minors are still barred from leaving their homes except for allotted times during the week.

While sports around the world are emerging from coronavirus lockdowns with televised competitions, horseracing resumed in Beirut this week with no audience at all, Reuters reports.

Eight races went ahead on Thursday at the city’s Hippodrome with fans unable to watch or bet. For general director Nabil Nasrallah, it marked a new low point in a dramatic history since the track hosted monarchs and movie stars in the 1960s.

The grandstand was destroyed in fighting when Israel occupied Beirut in 1982 and stood on the frontline between warring factions during the country’s 15-year civil war.

The really tough times began late last year, when Lebanon’s currency began to slide, hiking prices and pushing many into poverty, Nasrallah said.

“We’ve lived through a lot … and this is the toughest time,” he added. “But we’re fighting to keep going.”

The jockeys had to wear masks and were sanitised before entering the track, which had closed for more than two months.

Lebanon, which has recorded 29 deaths from Covid-19, is now gradually lifting movement restrictions, allowing businesses to open at lower capacity and with safety guidelines.

Britain’s failure to impose a nationwide lockdown to tackle the spread of the coronavirus sooner has cost many lives, one of the government’s scientific advisers said on Sunday.

Britain is one of the worst-hit countries in the world, with a death toll that is estimated to top 50,000 already.

Critics from a broad spectrum including medical professionals, scientists, and lawmakers, say the government has botched its response to the outbreak by being too slow in imposing crucial measures such as the lockdown and protecting the elderly in care homes.

Despite reservations from some of its own scientific advisers, the government is now easing nationwide lockdown measures that were introduced on 23 March.

John Edmunds, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE), told the BBC: “We should have gone into lockdown earlier.”

While the World Health Organization has signalled that Latin America is the new centre of the pandemic, cases in Cuba have fallen for two months.

My colleague Ed Augustin reports from Havana.

The South African government has struck a deal with private hospitals and medical practitioners, on whom it will have to rely in the treatment of severely ill Covid-19 patients if public hospitals run out of space.

The government has been in talks for months with private firms and medical associations ahead of a probable scenario where public hospitals run out of critical care beds.

Providers will be able to charge a daily fee of up to 16,000 rand ($950) for Covid-19 patients that get treated in critical care beds in private hospitals, Anban Pillay, the health ministry’s deputy director-general for national health insurance, told Reuters.

The fee includes the cost of using the bed, paying a team of specialists to treat the patient and additional services including pathology and radiology.

Estimates vary widely as to how many critical care beds there are in the country. A ministry presentation in April put the total at around 3,300, with two-thirds of those in the private sector, while Healthcare provider Netcare estimates there are some 6,000 beds, with around 3,800 in private hospitals.

South Africa had recorded 45,973 coronavirus cases as of Saturday, the most in Africa, with the number rising more steeply in recent weeks.

Anti-racism protests attended by thousands of people in London and other major British cities “undoubtedly” risk causing an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases again, the British health minister Matt Hancock said on Sunday.

Thousands of people attended protests on Saturday to voice their anger at police brutality after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, ignoring restrictions that forbid gatherings of more than six people outside.

Asked during an interview on Sky News whether the number attending protests made an increase in infections more likely, Hancock said: “It is undoubtedly a risk.”

“I support very strongly the argument that is being made by those who are protesting … but the virus itself doesn’t discriminate and gathering in large groups is temporarily against the rules precisely because it increases the risk of the spread of this virus,” he said.

John Edmunds, a member of the government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (Sage), said that while the risk of spreading the virus is lower outside, the current estimate is that around one in 1,000 people in the country are infectious.

“If you have a crowd of a few thousand people then you would expect some of those people to be infectious … so it is a risk to have thousands of people congregating together,” he told the BBC.

With further protests planned for Sunday, London police chief Cressida Dick urged protesters to “find another way to make your views heard which does not involve coming out on the streets of London” due to the coronavirus risk.