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Coronavirus live news: New Zealand's biggest city back in lockdown as global deaths top 740,000 Coronavirus live news: New Zealand's biggest city back in lockdown as global deaths pass 740,000
(32 minutes later)
WHO warns displacement of people in Beirut risks accelerating Covid-19 spread; four new cases in Auckland, New Zealand; Australia suffers deadliest day. Follow the latest updatesWHO warns displacement of people in Beirut risks accelerating Covid-19 spread; four new cases in Auckland, New Zealand; Australia suffers deadliest day. Follow the latest updates
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, says she needs “time to fully consider” the situation around the country’s fresh Covid-19 outbreak before she considers a call from the leader of the opposition to delay the 19 September election date.She said she was focused on the health and jobs response. Earlier, Judith Collins, the parliamentary opposition leader, had called for a delay to the vote. Collins took over as the leader of the centre-right National party last month.It was “unsustainable to expect there to be a fair and just election” when parties were not free to campaign, and the public had “no certainty” about whether they could publicly cast their vote, Collins said. She urged Ardern to postpone the election until November, which could be done relatively easily, she added. A later vote was more complex, but Collins suggested an election in 2021 might be preferable. Ardern said it was too early – 24 hours after the fresh cases had been diagnosed – to make a decision. She has deferred until Monday the dissolution of Parliament, and expects to consider a decision about the election before then.
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, has referenced Australia’s infection numbers in a stark warning to her country about following the lockdown rules. “There were 322 new cases of Covid-19 in Australia yesterday,” she said. “Our response to the virus so far has worked,” she added. “We all want to get back there as soon as we can but success relies on us all working together.”Again referencing Australia, she said: “We don’t need to look far to know what it will mean if we don’t get on top of it.”New Zealand has registered four confirmed and four probable cases of Covid-19 in the community. Others are contained at quarantine facilities for returning travellers.
Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, said it would now be mandatory for businesses to prominently display QR codes for the government’s contact-tracing app. The app, and the QR code posters for businesses, have been entirely optional thus far, and uptake has been slow. But it will now be compulsory for firms to display them. That’s in response to the fresh outbreak of Covid-19 transmitted within the city of Auckland.
Ashley Bloomfield, New Zealand’s top health official, has taken the rare and serious step of making an order that certain people in Auckland remain at home and in isolation – and stay isolated until they are contacted by health officials with the contact tracing service.
These are people who could be connected to the four confirmed cases of Covid-19 transmitted in the community in New Zealand’s largest city. They are:
Any employees or contractors of the firms Americold in the area of Mt Wellington, or Finance Now in Dominion Road.
Any visitors to those workplaces in the past 14 days.
Anyone who lives with those employees or contractors.
There are four more “probable” cases of Covid-19 transmitted in the community in Auckland, New Zealand, in addition to the four instances confirmed yesterday, the country’s top health official, Ashley Bloomfield said. Bloomfield is giving an update at Parliament in Wellington, after yesterday’s four locally transmitted cases – the first in New Zealand in more than 100 days – prompted a strict lockdown of the largest city, Auckland. The four probable cases are linked to yesterday’s four. All have Covid-19 symptoms and are awaiting test results. All four, as well as yesterday’s confirmed cases, are in isolation at home.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is speaking now with Dr Ashley Bloomfield, the country’s top health official.
You can watch the New Zealand press conference live here when it begins:You can watch the New Zealand press conference live here when it begins:
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the country’s top health official, Ashley Bloomfield, are due to give a news conference beginning shortly, at 4pm local time (2pm AEST). The pair is expected to provide an update on any new community-spread cases of Covid-19 in the country after four were diagnosed yesterday, prompting a strict lockdown for the city of Auckland. The Guardian will bring you the latest from the news conference.New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, and the country’s top health official, Ashley Bloomfield, are due to give a news conference beginning shortly, at 4pm local time (2pm AEST). The pair is expected to provide an update on any new community-spread cases of Covid-19 in the country after four were diagnosed yesterday, prompting a strict lockdown for the city of Auckland. The Guardian will bring you the latest from the news conference.
More than half of Victoria’s active cases of Covid-19 are in people aged 39 years old and younger, while less than 6% of the state’s deaths have been in the same age group, data from the Department of Health shows.More than half of Victoria’s active cases of Covid-19 are in people aged 39 years old and younger, while less than 6% of the state’s deaths have been in the same age group, data from the Department of Health shows.
The data included all cases of the virus and deaths up to 11 August. The age group with the highest amount of active cases is 20-29 years, with 1,823 infections. There have been no deaths in the state in this age group. Four deaths have occurred in those aged 30-39, while one death occurred in the 40-49 age group. Those aged between 0 and 39 comprise 54.9% of all active cases.The data included all cases of the virus and deaths up to 11 August. The age group with the highest amount of active cases is 20-29 years, with 1,823 infections. There have been no deaths in the state in this age group. Four deaths have occurred in those aged 30-39, while one death occurred in the 40-49 age group. Those aged between 0 and 39 comprise 54.9% of all active cases.
Meanwhile, 103 people in their 80s and 47 people in their 70s have died. On Thursday the premier, Daniel Andrews, said of the 21 deaths overnight – the state’s deadliest 24 hours to date – 11 were aged in their 80s:Meanwhile, 103 people in their 80s and 47 people in their 70s have died. On Thursday the premier, Daniel Andrews, said of the 21 deaths overnight – the state’s deadliest 24 hours to date – 11 were aged in their 80s:
Podcast: How one hotel outbreak of Covid-19 put an Australian state back in lockdownPodcast: How one hotel outbreak of Covid-19 put an Australian state back in lockdown
Melbourne bureau chief, Melissa Davey, discusses life under a second lockdown after a hotel security breach in Victoria caused a resurgence of coronavirus cases:Melbourne bureau chief, Melissa Davey, discusses life under a second lockdown after a hotel security breach in Victoria caused a resurgence of coronavirus cases:
Judith Collins, New Zealand’s parliamentary opposition leader, has called for a delay to the country’s 19 September election to November, after fresh cases of Covid-19 in the country prompted a strict lockdown of the largest city, Auckland. Collins, who took over as the leader of the centre-right National party last month, is speaking to reporters at Parliament in Wellington. It was “unsustainable to expect there to be a fair and just election” when parties were not free to campaign, and the public had “no certainty” about whether they could publicly cast their vote. She urged Ardern to postpone the election until November, which could be done relatively easily. A later vote was more complex, but Collins suggested an election in 2021 might be preferable. Auckland was placed in lockdown, with lesser restrictions on the rest of the country, after four fresh cases were diagnosed in the community. There had been no community transmission for more than 100 days.Judith Collins, New Zealand’s parliamentary opposition leader, has called for a delay to the country’s 19 September election to November, after fresh cases of Covid-19 in the country prompted a strict lockdown of the largest city, Auckland. Collins, who took over as the leader of the centre-right National party last month, is speaking to reporters at Parliament in Wellington. It was “unsustainable to expect there to be a fair and just election” when parties were not free to campaign, and the public had “no certainty” about whether they could publicly cast their vote. She urged Ardern to postpone the election until November, which could be done relatively easily. A later vote was more complex, but Collins suggested an election in 2021 might be preferable. Auckland was placed in lockdown, with lesser restrictions on the rest of the country, after four fresh cases were diagnosed in the community. There had been no community transmission for more than 100 days.
Collins claimed she had received “absolutely no transparency” and had not been consulted properly by Ardern before the lockdown was announced. She said her shadow health spokesperson had been unable to secure a briefing from Ardern’s health minister. Ardern, the leader of the centre-left Labour party, earlier said that it was too early to say whether the date of the vote would be postponed.She deferred the dissolution of Parliament, due to happen on Wednesday NZT, to Monday instead, due to the fresh outbreak. Dissolving Parliament means Cabinet can still make decisions but the full Parliament cannot be convened.Collins claimed she had received “absolutely no transparency” and had not been consulted properly by Ardern before the lockdown was announced. She said her shadow health spokesperson had been unable to secure a briefing from Ardern’s health minister. Ardern, the leader of the centre-left Labour party, earlier said that it was too early to say whether the date of the vote would be postponed.She deferred the dissolution of Parliament, due to happen on Wednesday NZT, to Monday instead, due to the fresh outbreak. Dissolving Parliament means Cabinet can still make decisions but the full Parliament cannot be convened.
‘If I give up, all my effort is for nothing’: international students thrown into Melbourne lockdown despair‘If I give up, all my effort is for nothing’: international students thrown into Melbourne lockdown despair
Nibarchana Oli has tried to avoid thinking about the prospect that she might soon be, as she puts it, “sitting on the road”.Nibarchana Oli has tried to avoid thinking about the prospect that she might soon be, as she puts it, “sitting on the road”.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she says. “We don’t have money and we don’t know how we are going to pay rent for next month.”“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” she says. “We don’t have money and we don’t know how we are going to pay rent for next month.”
Oli, 19, is an international student from Ghorani, Nepal and is in her first year of a three-year IT degree at the Melbourne campus of a university based in another state.Oli, 19, is an international student from Ghorani, Nepal and is in her first year of a three-year IT degree at the Melbourne campus of a university based in another state.
Almost half of Australian PhD students considering disengaging from studies due to pandemicRead moreAlmost half of Australian PhD students considering disengaging from studies due to pandemicRead more
She arrived in Australia in February, just before the coronavirus took hold and the lockdowns that followed dispensed with her chances of getting a job.She arrived in Australia in February, just before the coronavirus took hold and the lockdowns that followed dispensed with her chances of getting a job.
With that, Oli has seen her savings reduced to about $400, she says. That is also how much she pays each month for a shared room in a modest house in St Albans, in Melbourne’s west. She shares the place with seven other Nepali students who are all in similar positions.With that, Oli has seen her savings reduced to about $400, she says. That is also how much she pays each month for a shared room in a modest house in St Albans, in Melbourne’s west. She shares the place with seven other Nepali students who are all in similar positions.
“It’s a really hard situation right now,” Oli says. “We are all jobless.”“It’s a really hard situation right now,” Oli says. “We are all jobless.”
A range of organisations, large and small, is supporting some of Melbourne’s 200,000 international students with food parcels and other essential items:A range of organisations, large and small, is supporting some of Melbourne’s 200,000 international students with food parcels and other essential items:
On Russia’s claims of having developed a vaccine, US health secretary Azar sounded sceptical.On Russia’s claims of having developed a vaccine, US health secretary Azar sounded sceptical.
“It’s important we provide safe, effective vaccines and that the data be transparent,” he said, adding that US vaccines would be well researched and ethically developed, with transparent data reviewed by outside experts.“It’s important we provide safe, effective vaccines and that the data be transparent,” he said, adding that US vaccines would be well researched and ethically developed, with transparent data reviewed by outside experts.
More from that press conference with the US health secretary Azar, who will tour a medical mask factory later today. While he declined to give details he said there had been discussions with Taiwanese officials about potential bilateral trade agreements, and in particular investment and opportunities to establish manufacturing of personal protective equipment or pharmaceuticals onshore in the US.
The most senior US visit to Taiwan in four decades, the trip has been widely seen as provocative to Beijing - which counts Taiwan as a part of China - and a forthright declaration of its growing relationship with Taipei.
Azar declined to comment on this.
“The purpose of this trip is really to highlight the partnership of the US and Taiwan across security, economics and healthcare issues,” he said.
“And to highlight Taiwan as a model of transparency openness… and to repeat consistent calls for Taiwan to be able to contribute in an appropriate way in international fora so the world may learn from Taiwan’s expertise.”
The US secretary of health, Alex Azar, has just held a press conference to mark the end of his multi-day visit to Taiwan.
Azar has met with senior government and health officials on the visit, including president Tsai Ing-wen. In the press conference Azar continued his criticism of China’s handling of the coronavirus outbreak, saying that if a novel virus had emerged in the US, Taiwan “or another open society, it would have gone very differently”.
China has been widely criticised for its attempts to coverup the outbreak, and prevent international investigators. The US president Donald Trump has also been widely criticised for failing to respond quickly or appropriately even when the information was available.
Taiwan and the US both reported their first case of the virus on the same day - 21 January. Taiwan has recorded fewer than 500 cases. The US just passed 5.1 million.
More on New Zealand’s outbreak, which has sent the largest city in the country back into lockdown. Reuters is reporting:
New Zealand officials are investigating the possibility that its first COVID-19 cases in more than three months were imported by freight, as the country plunged back into lockdown on Wednesday.
The discovery of four infected family members in Auckland led prime minister Jacinda Ardern to swiftly reimpose tight restrictions on movement in New Zealand’s biggest city and travel limitations across the entire country.
The source of the outbreak has baffled health officials, who said they were confident there were was no local transmission of the virus in New Zealand for 102 days and that the family had not travelled overseas.
“We are working hard to put together pieces of the puzzle on how this family got infected,” said director general of health Ashley Bloomfield.
Investigations were zeroing in on the potential the virus was imported by freight. Bloomfield said surface testing was underway in an Auckland cool store where a man from the infected family worked.
“We are very confident we didn’t have any community transmission for a very long period,” Bloomfield said during a televised media conference. “We know the virus can survive within refrigerated environments for quite some time.”
China has reported instances of the coronavirus being detected on the packaging of imported frozen seafood.
The United States has entered an agreement with drugmaker Moderna to acquire 100 million doses of its potential COVID-19 vaccine for around $1.5 billion, the company and White House said on Tuesday.
The United States in recent weeks has made deals to acquire hundreds of millions of doses of potential COVID-19 vaccines from several companies as part of its Operation Warp Speed program, which aims to deliver a vaccine in the country by the end of the year.
Moderna’s price per dose comes to around $30.50 per person for a two dose regimen.
With the exception of its deal with AstraZeneca, which offered a lower price per drug in exchange for upfront research and development costs, all the deals price Covid-19 vaccines between $20 to $42 for a two dose course of treatment.
Moderna’s vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, is one of the few that have already advanced to the final stage of testing and is on track to be completed in September, the company said this month.
US secretary of health, Alex Azar, expressed confidence in the Moderna trial.
“We believe that it is highly credible we will have in the high tens of millions of doses… by the end of this year, and many hundreds of millions of doses as we go into the beginning of next year.”
Other countries, including Japan, the UK, and Canada, have forged similar deals with drugmakers.
The Dead Sea Scrolls have been pulled out of a heavily fortified vault and put back on display at the Israel Museum ahead of its reopening to the public this week following a five-month Covid-19 shutdown.
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.
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.”
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.
Israel has recorded more than 86,000 cases and 622 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Mexico’s health ministry on Tuesday reported 6,686 new confirmed coronavirus cases and 926 additional fatalities, bringing the totals in the country to 492,522 infections and 53,929 deaths.The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Argentina’s death toll from the coronavirus has topped 5,000, the government said on Tuesday, as cases have skyrocketed in recent weeks, pushing the South American nation up in the global charts despite months of lockdown and a promising start, Reuters reports. Argentina has been under quarantine since March 20, although officials previously relaxed restrictions in many parts of the nation, a move blamed for the recent spike in cases.
The country recorded 7,043 new cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, pushing the total confirmed infections to 260,911, surpassing the total caseload in Italy. The latest government data shows 5,004 people have died from the disease.The capital Buenos Aires and the surrounding province have been bound by the strictest quarantine measures but have nonetheless emerged as the focal point of the country´s outbreak.The World Health Organization earlier on Tuesday expressed special concern for the spike in cases in Argentina after months in which the country appeared to have the outbreak under control. More than 100,000 cases of C0VID-19 are being reported daily in the Americas, the global health organization said.
Cases of Lyme disease, a potentially debilitating condition primarily transmitted by black-legged ticks, have doubled over the past two decades to about 30,000 cases a year in the US. These ticks have spread into the upper reaches of New England and the midwest, while other tick species normally found in warmer southern states, such as the longhorned tick and lone star tick, are now popping up in New York and New Jersey.
Infections may now spread further, ironically, due to restrictions imposed to curb the spread of Covid-19. National parks and hiking groups have reported huge booms in the number of people seeking to break the monotony of lockdown by heading to walking trails, risking contact with ticks that latch on to people as they brush through vegetation:
In Australia, an aged care expert has told the royal commission examining the sector that Covid-19 is “the worst disaster that is still unfolding before my eyes”, and warned that hundreds of residents will die prematurely because of a failure of authorities to act.
Professor Joseph Ibrahim, the head of health law and ageing research unit, at Monash University’s Department of Forensic Medicine, told the aged care royal commission on Wednesday morning that the approach to keep residents in aged care facilities during outbreaks is “wrong and inappropriate”.
Ibrahim believes Australia’s rate of death in residential aged care is the second highest in the world, behind Canada at 80%, and that “we’re faring very badly”.
Ibrahim previously gave evidence to the royal commission before this week’s Covid-19 specific hearings, and said “I didn’t think we would sink any lower following the royal commission findings from last year and yet we have”.
Department of Health secretary Brendan Murphy and Aged Care Quality and Safety Commissioner Janet Anderson are set to give evidence to the royal commission later on Wednesday.
In other vaccine news, Mexico aims to conduct late-stage clinical trials for Covid-19 vaccines in development by US and Chinese companies, two of which might base some of their vaccine production in the country, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
Reuters reports that Mexico has signed memorandums of understanding with Johnson & Johnson, along with Chinese companies CanSino Biologics Inc and Walvax Biotechnology Co Ltd, Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard said at a news conference.Ebrard said the trials would start between September and January, depending on approval from Mexico’s food and drug agency.He said the goal to secure access to the drugs for Mexico, highlighting growing anxiety and “vaccine diplomacy” around the world as developing countries jostle to get timely access to treatments and vaccines.The foreign ministry said CanSino and Walvax were interested in producing an eventual vaccine in Mexico for delivery to the Latin American market.More than 150 vaccines are being developed and tested around the world to stop the Covid-19 pandemic, with 25 in human clinical trials, according to the World Health Organization.