Covid live news: Lebanon hits record daily cases after blast; Russian vaccine must follow safety procedure, says WHO
As Australia wakes up, here’s a summary of some of the latest headlines from the last couple hours:
Lebanon registered a record daily number of coronavirus cases. As the country grapples with the aftermath of the Beirut port explosion that has rocked the political sphere and overwhelmed hospitals, Lebanon’s totals now stand at 7,121 cases and 87 deaths since February, according to health ministry data. Even before the blast there had been a recent surge in infections.
The Netherlands plans to introduce mandatory home quarantine for people identified by local authorities as having been in close contact with somebody infected with coronavirus, and for travellers returning from high-risk countries. The Dutch health minister Hugo de Jonge said in a letter to lawmakers that mandatory quarantine could be imposed if people refuse to isolate voluntarily. It comes amid rising infection rates in the Netherlands and an unwillingness among some people to adhere to social distancing measures and cooperate with contact tracing.
Germany has extended a partial travel warning for Spain to the capital of Madrid and the Basque region amid the Covid-19 pandemic. The foreign ministry said it was warning against any unnecessary tourist trips to both regions because of a rising number of new infections and local restrictions put in place to contain the spread of the virus.
The United States has reported a total of 5,064,171 cases of Covid-19 as of 4pm ET on 10 August, according to the CDC. That is an increase of 40,522 cases from its previous count. The number of deaths in the country rose by 565 to 162,407.
As we reported earlier, the Dutch health minister said he plans to introduce mandatory home quarantine for people identified by local authorities as having been in close contact with somebody infected with coronavirus, and for travellers returning from high-risk countries.
Health minister Hugo de Jonge said in a letter to lawmakers that mandatory quarantine could be imposed if people refuse to isolate voluntarily.
The move comes amid rising infection rates in the Netherlands and an unwillingness among some people to adhere to social distancing measures and cooperate with contact tracing.
“Mandatory quarantine is a tough measure but justified. Quarantine stops the spread of the virus so sticking to the rules is crucial,” De Jonge wrote.
He added that he also wants to introduce mandatory quarantine for travellers returning from countries considered a high risk for infections. It is not clear how soon such a measure can be implemented. De Jonge said that the move will require a law change.
The Dutch coronavirus quarantine currently stands at 14 days.
Earlier on Tuesday, the Dutch public health institute said there were 4,036 new confirmed infections in the last week, 1,448 more than the week earlier.
The institute said that the confirmed number of people who have died of Covid-19 rose by nine to 6,159. The true number of deaths could be higher because not all people who died of suspected Covid-19 were tested.
The increases come despite local initiatives aimed at reining in infections, which have been climbing since the Dutch government relaxed lockdown measures on 1 July.
The country’s two most populous cities – Amsterdam and Rotterdam – last week made use of face masks mandatory in a number of busy streets and markets.
The percentage of people who tested positive also is rising, from 2.3% in the previous week to 3.6% over the last seven days.
Dutch lawmakers are returning from their summer recess Wednesday for a debate on the government’s handling of the pandemic.
Germany has extended a partial travel warning for Spain to the capital of Madrid and the Basque region due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
The foreign ministry said it was warning against any unnecessary tourist trips to both regions because of a rising number of new infections and local restrictions put in place to contain the spread of coronavirus.
The German government had already issued travel warnings for the Spanish regions of Aragon, Catalonia and Navarra.
The Israel Museum has pulled the priceless Dead Sea scrolls out of a heavily fortified vault ahead of its reopening to the public following a five-month shutdown amid to the coronavirus pandemic.
The museum, Israel’s largest cultural institution, closed down in March as the country entered lockdown. But budgetary problems left the Jerusalem museum shuttered after Israel began easing restrictions on public spaces in May.
Most of the museum’s 500 employees have returned from months of furlough ahead of Thursday’s reopening, which will also see the return of other treasured artworks and artefacts. Throughout the empty galleries, curators and cleaners dusted off works, removed protective coverings and returned masterpieces from storage.
Hagit Maoz, curator of the Dead Sea scrolls at the Shrine of the Book in the Israel Museum, which is returning the scrolls and other treasured artworks to its galleries ahead of this week’s reopening to the public. Photograph: Maya Alleruzzo/AP
The Dead Sea scrolls fragile, two millennia-old parchments that include the oldest existing copies of Biblical texts came out of deep sleep in the museum’s climate-controlled vaults to return to display, Shrine of the Book curator Hagit Maoz said.
The delicate scrolls require low light and humidity for their long-term preservation.
Each scroll sits in the showcase only for three months, then we rotate the parts,” said Maoz. Because we didn’t know how long we won’t be here … to be on the safe side we decided to take everything down” to the vault.
Auguste Rodin’s “The Kiss,” is on display in a gallery of the Israel Museum after five months in storage during the five-month closure. Photograph: Maya Alleruzzo/AP
In the museum’s modern art wing, senior curator Adina Kamien oversaw the re-installation of several statues by celebrated French sculptor Auguste Rodin, including the iconic “The Kiss”. She said:
I feel that the museum is returning to life. A museum that can’t welcome its patrons is a dead museum. An artwork and exhibit are not complete without visitors.
Though the country began rebooting the economy in May, the Israel Museum struggled to raise funding to allow it to sustainably open for the duration of the crisis, director Ido Bruno said.
Israel closed its borders at the start of the lockdown, and the international tourism on which the museum relies for ticket sales plummeted from a record high of over 900,000 visitors in 2019 to zero by mid-March. The museum received funds from American donors and a pledge of funds from the culture ministry that helped it reopen.
In line with health ministry regulations, entry to the museum will be restricted to a cap of 2,000 people at any given time, and tickets must be ordered online in advance.
“Its very, very difficult to be a director of a closed museum, because museums want to be open,” Bruno said.
They want to welcome people. They want to open up.
Staff at the Israel Museum clean pieces on display, including Marcel Duchamp’s “Fountain,” during final preparations to reopen following five months of closure. Photograph: Maya Alleruzzo/AP
Palestinian security forces at Rafah crossing south of the Gaza Strip after months of closure due to the coronavirus pandemic. Egypt on Tuesday fully reopened the Rafah border crossing for three days. Photograph: Abed Alrahman Alkahlout/Quds Net News/Zuma Wire/Rex/Shutterstock
Lebanon has announced a record daily number of Covid-19 infections, more than 300, and seven deaths from the virus as the country grapples with the aftermath of the port explosion that rocked Beirut and overwhelmed hospitals.
The country’s totals now stand at 7,121 cases and 87 deaths since February, according to health ministry data. Even before the blast there had been a recent surge in infections.
The 4 August explosion killed at least 171 people, injured about 6,000 and damaged swathes of the capital, leaving around 300,000 people without habitable housing. Hospitals, many of which were damaged and their staff injured, were overwhelmed with wounded people.
The World Health Organization spokesman Tarik Jarasevic told a United Nations briefing in Geneva on Tuesday that the displacement of so many people risked accelerating the spread of Covid-19.
The WHO on 7 August issued an appeal for $15m to cover emergency health needs in Lebanon, where the healthcare sector was already under strain owing to shortages of medical supplies and medicine caused by a deep financial crisis.
“The emergency in Beirut has caused many Covid-19 precautionary measures to be relaxed, raising the prospects of even higher transmission rates and a large caseload in coming weeks,” the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in a report on 10 August.
It said at least 15 medical facilities, including three major hospitals, sustained partial or heavy structural damage from the blast. An assessment of 55 primary healthcare centres in Beirut showed only 47% could still provide full routine services.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Tuesday reported 5,064,171 cases of coronavirus. That is an increase of 40,522 cases from its previous count. The CDC said the number of deaths in the country had risen by 565 to 162,407.
The CDC reported its tally of cases of Covid-19 as of 4pm ET on 10 August versus its previous report a day earlier.
The figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
The Dutch government plans to order mandatory quarantine for people who are known to have been exposed to the coronavirus, national broadcaster NOS reported on Tuesday, citing a letter to parliament.
The decision follows a 55% rise in the number of positive cases in the Netherlands to 4,036 in the past week from 2,588 cases the week before.
A total of 1,148 new cases of Covid-19 were confirmed in the United Kingdom as of 9am GMT on Tuesday, compared with a figure of 816 on Monday, UK government data showed. The cumulative total of confirmed UK cases stood at 312,789.
Here’s a summary of the latest news:
Russia approves Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine despite testing safety concerns – video Ardern changes Auckland Covid-19 rules as New Zealand records first local cases in 102 days – video
Covid-19 infections have passed 20 million cases. In acknowledging the milestone, the head of the WHO warned against despair, saying if the virus could be suppressed effectively, “we can safely open up societies”.
The Trump administration is reportedly considering a measure to block US citizens and permanent residents from returning home if they are suspected of being infected with coronavirus. A senior US official told Reuters that draft regulation, which has not been finalised and could change, would give the government authorisation to block individuals who could “reasonably” be believed to have contracted Covid-19 or other diseases.
Singapore’s economy shrank almost 43% in the second quarter, in a sign that the country’s first recession in more than a decade was deeper than initially estimated, official data showed on Tuesday, AFP reports, as it warned of a “true resurgence” or “risk of further escalation of Covid-19” in several countries.
Concern is growing that a resurgence of coronavirus in Europe will lead to a “second wave” of uncoordinated border restrictions. In a letter, the European commission warns that “while we must ensure that the EU is ready for possible resurgences of Covid-19 cases … we should at the same time avoid a second wave of uncoordinated actions at the internal borders of the EU”.
Greece is “formally” in the midst of a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic, one of the country’s top infectious disease experts said, adding: “We can say that Greece has formally entered a second wave of the epidemic. This is the point that we could win or lose the battle.”
Wearing a face mask became compulsory on dozens of busy Paris shopping streets and in other popular parts of the city from 8am on Monday as coronavirus numbers continued to rise in and around the French capital.
Authorities in Iran shut down a newspaper after it published remarks by an expert who cast doubt on official coronavirus figures, claiming they only account for 5% of the real toll. Meanwhile, 189 more people died from Covid-19 and 2,132 more people had tested positive for the virus in the past 24 hours, the country’s health ministry said.
There is a huge gap between funds needed to fight the coronavirus and funds committed worldwide, the World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said. Tedros said that ACT accelerator, an initiative established to develop and distribute tools to counter the spread of the pandemic, had received just one-tenth of the funding it needed.
Deacon Mauricio Castiblanco Beltrán getting ready for the funeral of a Covid-19 victim. Photograph: Fernando Vergara/AP
Standing outside the high cemetery walls as a sharp breeze blows down from the Andes, Mauricio Castiblanco pulls on a disposable coverall, adjusts his mask under a face shield, and snaps on latex gloves.
He adds extras to his personal protective equipment (PPE), befitting his role as a Catholic deacon: a purple sash decorated with an embroidered red cross, a plastic bottle of holy water, and a book of funeral rites.
Castiblanco, who works at a Bogotá funeral home, is getting ready to receive four hearses bearing the bodies of presumed or confirmed Covid-19 victims.
As Latin America becomes the new global hotspot for the pandemic, Colombia is set to pass 400,000 confirmed cases; the eighth-highest total in the world. That is despite five months of nationwide lockdown.
The disease has killed more than 13,000 people in Colombia. Intensive care units (ICUs) in the capital are close to capacity. Families have been allowed a brief wake and now Castiblanco will lead a curbside ceremony, witnessed by journalists from Reuters and other news agencies, before the hearse disappears into the cemetery. Entry is barred for all but burial workers and the dead. He tells mourners:
This goodbye is even more painful. This doesn’t give us time, it’s against the clock.
The health ministry has banned the embalming of remains from confirmed and suspected Covid-19 patients. Instead, they must be cremated or buried quickly in individual tombs. Castiblanco says:
It’s really impacted me because we did have a gentle rhythm, unhurried, but we’ve gotten to the point where we have to abandon our usual locations, our wake rooms, our chapels. The [number of] services is incalculable, there are so many.
Soon, there is a traffic jam of hearses and family transport. Castiblanco gathers each family for prayers, accompanied by a violinist, before he douses the vehicle in holy water.
One victim, not yet a confirmed Covid-19 death, was just 44, a relative tells Reuters. Castiblanco says the ceremony helps families longing for usual graveside rites. He also urges them to remember that loved ones “haven’t died, they’ve just gone ahead”.
The Brazilian health regulator Anvisa has said it has not received a request to authorise Russia’s newly touted vaccine, which the Paraná state government has said it is in talks to produce locally.
Anvisa said it could not comment on the safety or effectiveness of the vaccine before getting official data from the Russian laboratory responsible for the vaccine. Russia has said it is ready to bring the vaccine to market, despite not having finished standard mass testing.
A large coalition of labour unions and climate action groups have petitioned the US health and homeland security departments to take over the manufacture and distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE).
The unions, including the AFL-CIO, the Service Employees International Union, the American Federation of Teachers and the Amalgamated Transit Union, represent more than 15 million workers, from nurses to flight attendants to nannies. The administration is required to respond within 15 days.
The groups could sue if they do not receive a response.
Healthcare and other frontline workers have experienced rolling shortages of gowns, gloves and critical N95 face masks since March, when the pandemic broke the global supply chain for such products. Healthcare workers could make up between 10% and 20% of total infections, the petition said, citing previous health authority estimates.
“It’s terrifying to risk your life every day just by going to work. It brings a lot of things into perspective,” said Rick Lucas, the president of the Ohio State University Nurses Organization and a nurse at Ohio State University Wexner medical center.
French health authorities reported 1,397 new infections over 24 hours on Tuesday; almost twice Monday’s tally.
The health ministry said there were 15 new deaths in hospital due the disease, compared to an increase of 16 over a three-day period between Saturday and Monday, with the total death toll standing at 30,354. The number of people hospitalised with the disease went down again after creeping up Monday for the first time in two and a half months.
Amid increasing public clashes with his top public health advisers on the pandemic, the US president Donald Trump appears to have turned to an academic whose views on swift reopening mirror his own.
On Monday, the president said Scott Atlas, a healthcare policy expert at the conservative Hoover Institution at Stanford University, “will be working with us on the coronavirus”, adding that Atlas “has many great ideas”.
Atlas appears to be more in tune with Trump’s thinking on the virus after the president publicly criticised both of his top pandemic officials, Deborah Birx and Anthony Fauci, over concerns they raised about the disastrous spread of Covid-19 in the US and the danger of allowing students to return to school.
Spain’s health ministry reported 1,418 new cases on Tuesday; below last week’s peaks.
Cumulative cases, which also include results from antibody tests on people who may have recovered, increased further to reach a total of 326,612.
The disease claimed 64 lives over the past seven days, the statistics showed. In total, more than 28,500 people have died from the disease in Spain, one of Europe’s hardest-hit countries.
Since lifting a nationwide lockdown, Spain has struggled to contain a rise in new infections, with heavy concentrations in the populous regions of Madrid and Catalonia. New infections recorded on Monday and Tuesday were however below last week’s peak of 1,895, reported on Friday.
