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Coronavirus updates: Canada closes borders to foreigners, as WHO tells countries to 'test, test, test' – live news Coronavirus updates: French citizens ordered to stay in their homes, as Canada closes borders to foreigners – live news
(32 minutes later)
Director-general of World Health Organization says ‘We cannot fight a fire blindfolded’; US measures ramped up; Germany closes shops. Follow the latest news WHO urges governments to ‘test, test, test’; US measures ramped up; Germany closes shops. Follow the latest news
The Trump administration’s measures are particularly focused on older people, whom it urged to stay home and keep away from other people.
The US president, Donald Trump, is announcing more radical White House recommendations; telling Americans to avoid any gatherings of more than 10 people over the next 15 days and advising all states with evidence of community transmission to close down bars, restaurants, gyms and other facilities.
France will also be closing its borders, in coordination with other EU nations, Macron says.
France is taking a slightly different approach. Macron has told the nation he wants no company to be exposed to the risk of collapse as a result of the pandemic. He has also said gas, electricity and water bills are to be suspended – as are rents – and the state will guarantee companies’ loans with a €300bn package.
Here’s a summary of the latest developments:
The head of the World Health Organizaion, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has implored governments to test more suspected cases, warning that they cannot fight the pandemic blindfolded. In a strongly-worded attack on governments which have neglected or held back testing, he said: “We have not seen an urgent enough escalation in testing, isolation and contact tracing, which is the backbone of the response.”
The death toll in Italy from Covid-19 has increased to 2,158, with the announcement of another 349 victims in Europe’s worst his country. Spain confirmed 9,191 cases and 309 deaths, making it the second hardest-hit country in Europe after Italy.
The death toll in the UK has increased to 55 people, including the first death in Wales. The latest victims included a 56-year-old, believed to be the youngest in the UK so far.
Boris Johnson unveiled a series of stringent new restrictions, including a 14-day isolation for all households with symptoms, a warning against “non-essential” contact, and an end to all mass gatherings. At the first of what is set to be daily Downing Street press conferences, the prime minister Johnson also said those over 70 and will soon need to be “largely shielded from social contact for around 12 weeks”.
Germany has closed places of worship, bars, restaurants, museums and cinemas. Announcing the plan, Chancellor Angela Merkel said: “The more individuals stick to these rules, the quicker we will get through this phase.”
The actor Idris Elba has become the latest celebrity to contract the virus. Earlier this month he was photographed at an event at London’s Wembley Arena with Sophie Grégoire Trudeau just over week before she tested positive.
The European Union has proposed banning all but essential travel for 30 days. Egypt, Canada, and Malaysia have become the latest countries to close airports.
France has warned of a “fast-deteriorating” situation and Spain has requisitioned its private healthcare sector. Jérôme Salomon, France’s top health official, said on Monday the epidemic in the country was “very worrying”, with the number of cases doubling every three days. “There is a real worry the speed of the outbreak could saturate hospitals,” he said.
Mounting concerns that the pandemic could prompt a global recession have sent financial markets around the world plunging, despite a coordinated effort by central banks to protect growth and jobs. The escalation of the worst turmoil since the 2008 financial crisis, came as world leaders prepared to hold a G7 video summit on Monday devoted to strengthening the financial markets during the coronavirus pandemic and improving coordination on finding a vaccine.
Major airlines including British Airways, Ryanair, easyJet and Virgin Atlantic announced a dramatic scaling back of their operations on Monday, with cuts of up to 80% of their services. The moves came as an aviation consultancy warned that the international airline industry will collapse within months, with the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, unless states worldwide inject billions of dollars of emergency funding to see it through the coronavirus “catastrophe”.
The economic impact on Ireland will be “severe”, the Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has warned.
All Irish residents have been urged not to travel overseas. The deputy Irish premier, Simon Coveney, said the National Public Health Emergency Team has recommended the measure be put in place from now until 29 March. The guidance includes Great Britain, but not Northern Ireland.
IN the UK, the health secretary Matt Hancock has said the illness is thought not to come back “for some time” for those who contract it. He has told MPs:
Adding weight to his order, Macron says infractions will be punished – going significantly further than the measures announced by the UK’s prime minister in the last few hours.
The French president, Emmanuel Macron, is telling the nation people’s movements will be severely limited, saying those who have ignored the government’s advice to isolate have put the health of other people at risk. He has ordered citizens to stay in their homes and only come out where it’s absolutely necessary.
Macron says all companies must now take steps to ensure employees can work from home. And he calls off a second round of municipal elections.
The leaders of the G7 group of nations – the UK and the US, France, Germany and Italy, as well as Canada and Japan – have promised to do “whatever is necessary” to combat the virus.
Focusing on the global scale and nature of the problem, a statement released by Downing Street said the seven nations would focus on
Coordinating on necessary public health measures
Restoring confidence, growth, and protecting jobs
Supporting global trade and investment
Encouraging science, research, and technological cooperation
Sergeant exams for police officers which had been scheduled to take place in large venues around the country tomorrow have now been cancelled.Sergeant exams for police officers which had been scheduled to take place in large venues around the country tomorrow have now been cancelled.
The College of Policing said in a statement:The College of Policing said in a statement:
The Scottish government is calling on people to avoid all but essential contact in a rapid escalation to the response to the outbreak that will see also elective hospital procedures postponed.
The first minister, Nicola Sturgeon, told a press briefing on Monday afternoon that Scotland is now on the cusp of a “rapid escalation” of coronavirus. The government is expecting to see a doubling of cases every few days and will step up the measures it needs to take to protect the most vulnerable.
The additional measures “reflect the seriousness of the situation that we face”, Sturgeon said. As well as the advice to ban gatherings of 500 or more people, Scottish residents are being told to socially isolate and stop going to pubs and cafes. And as in England, people showing symptoms should stay at home for seven days, while members of a household where someone has suspected symptoms should stay at home for 14 days.
Jeane Freeman, the Scotland’s secretary for health, confirmed the NHS will be scaling down and postponing elective procedures, such as hip replacement, in order to increase bed capacity.
Over the next few days the Scottish health authorities will be contacting the most vulnerable group in society, specifically people who suffer from compromised immune system, which is around 200,000 people in Scotland, to offer specific tailored advice to shield that group.
“There is no way escaping the fact that what we’re advising people to do will significantly and substantially change life as we know it for a considerable period of time,” Sturgeon told the sober press conference.
Dr Catherine Calderwood, Scotland’s chief medical officer, said: “there is no chief medical officer who wishes ever to be standing here to discuss the measures that we are talking about to the population of Scotland today.”
She added her NHS colleagues and those in social care have “extremely challenging times ahead.”
The actor Idris Elba has announced he has tested positive for Covid-19.
Last week it emerged that Elba met Sophie Grégoire Trudeau at an event in London just over week before she tested positive.
The wife of the Canadian prime minister was photographed at the Wembley Arena We Day event on 4 March alongside the F1 driver Lewis Hamilton and Elba. Video of the event showed Grégoire Trudeau embracing the former Australia prime minister Julia Gillard. A spokeswoman for Gillard said she is self-isolating as a precaution.
On the same day Grégoire Trudeau also went to an International Women’s Day conference attended by the former supreme court president Lady Hale.
Some people are seeing the bright side of being on lockdown.
Layla McCay the international director of the NHS Confederation shares this video that her mother sent her from Spain.
The death toll in the UK has increased by 19 to 53 people, according an update from the NHS.
The victims were aged between 94 and 56 years old and had underlying health conditions.
NHS England said the patients died at the following hospitals:
Barts Health NHS: 1
Lewisham and Greenwich NHS: 2
Salisbury NHS Foundation: 1
University Hospital of Southampton: 1
Walsall Healthcare NHS: 1
Wexham Park Hospital: 2
University College London Hospital NHS Trust: 4
Mid Cheshire Trust: 1
Hampshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 2
North Tees & Hartlepool NHS Foundation Trust: 1
University Hospitals Birmingham: 1
St. Georges University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust: 2
Total: 19
Anders Madsen, a nurse from Greenland’s capital Nuuk, has more on the island’s first case of Covid-19 (see earlier).
Angela Merkel has announced a raft of further drastic measures to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus in Germany, including the closure of places of worship, playgrounds and non-essential shops.
Speaking at a press conference in Berlin on Monday afternoon, the German chancellor issued new guidelines for restricting social gatherings, which the country’s federal state are expected to enforce in the coming days. She said:
The measures include the closure of bars, clubs, theatres, museums, cinemas, trade fairs and brothels, as well as a ban on services of worship at churches, mosques and synagogues.
A number of shops will be exempted from the restrictions and may be allowed to open their doors on Sundays, the chancellor said. They include supermarkets, corner stores, pharmacies, petrol stations, banks, post offices, hairdressers, hardware stores and delivery services.
Restaurants are to open their doors from six am until 6pm.
The southern state of Bavaria had already announced on Monday morning it would implement state of emergency measures to the same effect from this Wednesday.
Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, says he will close his country’s border to foreigners. Only four Canadian airports will be allowed to accept international flights, he said.
The closure will not apply to commerce or trade, Trudeau said.
Boris Johnson first daily briefing has come to an end. Here’s a news story on the main points:
The UK has defended its record on testing in response to that call by the WHO’s director general, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, to ‘test, test, test.”
Tedros told a press conference in Geneva that government’s cannot fight the pandemic blindfolded. Johnson was challenged about this at his Downing Street briefing, but left it to his chief medical officer, Chris Whitty to answer.
Whitty said:
A prison officer at HMP High Down, south London, UK, has tested positive for coronavirus.
A Prison Service spokesperson said: