Global Coronavirus (COVID-19) Updates: Australia’s Victoria state confirmed a record 532 new infections, Vietnam saw its first cases in more than three months, and North Korea locked down a city after it found a person who may be infected.
Coronavirus Global Updates: More than 16.2 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the globe and 6,48,913 people have died. The United States is the worst-affected followed by Brazil and India in terms of caseload. Health officials across the globe are grappling with second waves of the coronavirus pandemic, with outbreaks from China to Spain serving as reminders of the difficulty in permanently stamping out the pathogen, according to Bloomberg. China, where the virus first emerged, reported the most domestic cases since mid-March amid flareups in the west and northeast. Australia’s Victoria state confirmed a record 532 new infections, Vietnam saw its first cases in more than three months, and North Korea locked down a city after it found a person who may be infected.
Almost 40 countries have reported record single-day increases in coronavirus infections over the past week, around double the number that did so the previous week, according to a Reuters tally. Many countries, especially those where officials eased earlier social distancing lockdowns, are experiencing a second peak more than a month after recording their first.
Meanwhile, nightclubs, bars and beaches—some of Spain’s most beloved summer venues—are facing new lockdown restrictions after turning into coronavirus hot spots, and some European nations are warning citizens not to visit the country.
Britain put Spain back on its unsafe list beginning Sunday, announcing hours earlier that travelers arriving in the UK from Spain must now quarantine for 14 days. Norway also ordered a 10-day quarantine for those returning from the Iberian Peninsula. France and Belgium are recommending that travelers ditch plans to spend their summer vacations in Barcelona and its nearby beaches, which have seen crowds too massive to allow for social distancing.
China’s local cases jump most since mid-March
China reported 61 new coronavirus cases, with local infections jumping by 57, the most since it brought an initial outbreak that emerged in Wuhan under control in mid-March. The far west province of Xinjiang, which last week suspended buses and subways in its capital city Urumqi, reported 41 local coronavirus cases.
The coastal city of Dalian in northeast China is also seeing a jump in infections. The port city is taking a targeted approach similar to what Beijing employed to tame the outbreak. It has escalated the risk levels of infected neighborhoods to high and medium and barred residents there from leaving the city. Dalian has also launched mass testing to track down infections, and is tracking seafood products processed by the Dalian Kaiyang World Seafood Co., where the first infection was reported.
Some US police resist enforcing coronavirus mask mandates
Lang Holland, the chief of police in tiny Marshall, Arkansas, said he thinks the threat of the coronavirus has been overstated and only wears a face mask if he’s inside a business that requires them. He doesn’t make his officers wear them either. So the day after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed an order requiring masks to be worn in public throughout Arkansas, Holland made it clear his department wasn’t going to enforce the mandate in the Ozarks town of about 1,300, calling it an unconstitutional overreach.
“All I’m saying is if you want to wear a mask, you have the freedom to choose that,” said Holland, who said he supports President Donald Trump. It should not be dictated by the nanny state.”
Holland is among a number of police chiefs and sheriffs in Arkansas and elsewhere who say they won’t enforce statewide mask requirements, even within their departments. Some say they don’t have the manpower to respond to every mask complaint, treating violations of the requirement as they would oft-ignored minor offenses such as jaywalking. Others, including Holland, reject the legal validity of mask requirements.
The pushback is concerning to health officials, who say a lack of enforcement could undermine what they say is a much-needed and simple step that can be taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Florida overtakes New York in coronavirus cases, adds 9,300
Florida surpassed New York over the weekend as the state with the second-most coronavirus cases in the US, as more than 9,300 new cases were reported in the Sunshine State on Sunday, accompanied by an additional 78 new deaths. Florida’s 423,855 coronavirus cases as of Sunday were surpassed only by California’s 453,659 cases.
With 39.5 million residents, California has almost double the population of Florida’s 21.4 million inhabitants. California is the nation’s most populous state, followed by Texas, Florida and New York.
New York, once the epicentre of the virus in the US, had 411,736 coronavirus cases. The state has 19.4 million residents.
There were 9,344 new cases reported in Florida on Sunday. The number of new cases was lower than other days last week, but caseloads released on Sundays tend to be smaller because of the lack of workers entering data or in labs testing samples. The statewide median age of coronavirus patients in Florida was 40.
South Africa warns COVID-19 corruption puts ‘lives at risk’
South Africa’s COVID-19 response is marred by corruption allegations around its historic $26 billion economic relief package, as the country with the world’s fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases braces for more.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a wide-ranging investigation into claims that unscrupulous officials and private companies are looting efforts to protect the country’s 57 million people.
“More so than at any other time, corruption puts our lives at risk,” he said in a national address Thursday night.
Food for the poor. Personal protective equipment for health workers. Grants for the newly laid off. All have been affected, he said.
Pope Francis urges support for elderly during pandemic
Pope Francis led pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square for the weekly Sunday blessing in a round of applause for elderly people suffering from loneliness during the pandemic.
Francis, on the feast day for Jesus’s maternal grandparents Saints Anne and Joachim, urged the faithful to consider every elderly person his or her own grandparent. ”Don’t leave them alone,” he implored, urging the faithful to reach out with a phone call, video chat or a visit where possible under distancing rules to impede the virus’ spread.
”I would like to invite young people to make a gesture of tenderness toward the elderly, especially those who are alone, at home and in residences, those who for many months have not seen loved ones,” the pope said.
”Send them a hug,” the pope said. ”They are your roots.”
Australia’s hard-hit Victoria state on Monday posted a new daily record of 532 new COVID-19 cases, and the government leader warned that a lockdown in the city of Melbourne would continue while infected people continued to go to work.
Melbourne is almost halfway through a six-week lockdown aimed at curbing community spread of coronavirus. Mask-wearing in Australia’s second-largest city became compulsory last week. The new cases and six deaths reported on Monday surpasses a previous record of 484 new infections reported on Wednesday last week.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the biggest driver of the new infections was people continuing to go to work after showing symptoms.
South Korea reports 25 new coronavirus cases
South Korea has reported 25 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing its national caseload to 14,175 infections and 299 deaths. South Korea’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said 16 of the new cases were tied to people arriving from abroad. The country in past days have reported dozens of cases among crew members of a Russia-flagged cargo ship docked in the southern port of Busan and hundreds of South Korean construction workers airlifted from virus-ravaged Iraq.
Among the nine local transmissions, eight were from the Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the centre of a virus resurgence since late May.
Faithful return to Mexico City churches with masks, gel
Temperatures were taken and anti-bacterial gel applied before the faithful walked through a disinfecting arch set up in front of centuries-old wood-and-stone doors. They sat spaced out on pews while robed priests donned face masks.
Mexico City’s Roman Catholic churches, including its main cathedral, began celebrating Mass again Sunday after three months of pandemic lockdown with a new normal that seemed to have more rules than faithful in the pews.
White House pushes narrow virus aid; Pelosi blasts GOP delay
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday assailed Republican disarray over a new pandemic relief package as the White House suggested a narrower effort might be necessary, at least for now. The California Democrat panned the Trump administration’s desire to trim an expiring temporary federal unemployment benefit from $600 weekly to about 70% of pre-pandemic wages.
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| People wait for a distribution of masks and food in New York |
Coronavirus Global Updates: More than 16.2 million people have been infected by the novel coronavirus across the globe and 6,48,913 people have died. The United States is the worst-affected followed by Brazil and India in terms of caseload. Health officials across the globe are grappling with second waves of the coronavirus pandemic, with outbreaks from China to Spain serving as reminders of the difficulty in permanently stamping out the pathogen, according to Bloomberg. China, where the virus first emerged, reported the most domestic cases since mid-March amid flareups in the west and northeast. Australia’s Victoria state confirmed a record 532 new infections, Vietnam saw its first cases in more than three months, and North Korea locked down a city after it found a person who may be infected.
China records 57 new domestic cases; highest surge in coronavirus figures since April
Beijing: China recorded 61 new coronavirus cases on Monday -- the highest daily figure since April -- propelled by clusters in three separate...
Almost 40 countries have reported record single-day increases in coronavirus infections over the past week, around double the number that did so the previous week, according to a Reuters tally. Many countries, especially those where officials eased earlier social distancing lockdowns, are experiencing a second peak more than a month after recording their first.
Meanwhile, nightclubs, bars and beaches—some of Spain’s most beloved summer venues—are facing new lockdown restrictions after turning into coronavirus hot spots, and some European nations are warning citizens not to visit the country.
Britain put Spain back on its unsafe list beginning Sunday, announcing hours earlier that travelers arriving in the UK from Spain must now quarantine for 14 days. Norway also ordered a 10-day quarantine for those returning from the Iberian Peninsula. France and Belgium are recommending that travelers ditch plans to spend their summer vacations in Barcelona and its nearby beaches, which have seen crowds too massive to allow for social distancing.
China’s local cases jump most since mid-March
China reported 61 new coronavirus cases, with local infections jumping by 57, the most since it brought an initial outbreak that emerged in Wuhan under control in mid-March. The far west province of Xinjiang, which last week suspended buses and subways in its capital city Urumqi, reported 41 local coronavirus cases.
The coastal city of Dalian in northeast China is also seeing a jump in infections. The port city is taking a targeted approach similar to what Beijing employed to tame the outbreak. It has escalated the risk levels of infected neighborhoods to high and medium and barred residents there from leaving the city. Dalian has also launched mass testing to track down infections, and is tracking seafood products processed by the Dalian Kaiyang World Seafood Co., where the first infection was reported.
 |
| Movie-goers wearing masks to protect themselves |
Some US police resist enforcing coronavirus mask mandates
Lang Holland, the chief of police in tiny Marshall, Arkansas, said he thinks the threat of the coronavirus has been overstated and only wears a face mask if he’s inside a business that requires them. He doesn’t make his officers wear them either. So the day after Republican Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed an order requiring masks to be worn in public throughout Arkansas, Holland made it clear his department wasn’t going to enforce the mandate in the Ozarks town of about 1,300, calling it an unconstitutional overreach.
“All I’m saying is if you want to wear a mask, you have the freedom to choose that,” said Holland, who said he supports President Donald Trump. It should not be dictated by the nanny state.”
Holland is among a number of police chiefs and sheriffs in Arkansas and elsewhere who say they won’t enforce statewide mask requirements, even within their departments. Some say they don’t have the manpower to respond to every mask complaint, treating violations of the requirement as they would oft-ignored minor offenses such as jaywalking. Others, including Holland, reject the legal validity of mask requirements.
The pushback is concerning to health officials, who say a lack of enforcement could undermine what they say is a much-needed and simple step that can be taken to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Florida overtakes New York in coronavirus cases, adds 9,300
Florida surpassed New York over the weekend as the state with the second-most coronavirus cases in the US, as more than 9,300 new cases were reported in the Sunshine State on Sunday, accompanied by an additional 78 new deaths. Florida’s 423,855 coronavirus cases as of Sunday were surpassed only by California’s 453,659 cases.
With 39.5 million residents, California has almost double the population of Florida’s 21.4 million inhabitants. California is the nation’s most populous state, followed by Texas, Florida and New York.
New York, once the epicentre of the virus in the US, had 411,736 coronavirus cases. The state has 19.4 million residents.
There were 9,344 new cases reported in Florida on Sunday. The number of new cases was lower than other days last week, but caseloads released on Sundays tend to be smaller because of the lack of workers entering data or in labs testing samples. The statewide median age of coronavirus patients in Florida was 40.
South Africa warns COVID-19 corruption puts ‘lives at risk’
South Africa’s COVID-19 response is marred by corruption allegations around its historic $26 billion economic relief package, as the country with the world’s fifth highest number of COVID-19 cases braces for more.
England and Scotland went separate ways on Covid-19. It may lead to a full divorce
When British Prime Minister Boris Johnson landed on Thursday in Orkney, an archipelago off Scotland's northern coast, he boldly proclai...
“More so than at any other time, corruption puts our lives at risk,” he said in a national address Thursday night.
Food for the poor. Personal protective equipment for health workers. Grants for the newly laid off. All have been affected, he said.
Pope Francis urges support for elderly during pandemic
Pope Francis led pilgrims gathered in St Peter’s Square for the weekly Sunday blessing in a round of applause for elderly people suffering from loneliness during the pandemic.
Francis, on the feast day for Jesus’s maternal grandparents Saints Anne and Joachim, urged the faithful to consider every elderly person his or her own grandparent. ”Don’t leave them alone,” he implored, urging the faithful to reach out with a phone call, video chat or a visit where possible under distancing rules to impede the virus’ spread.
 |
| Passengers in a minibus taxi wear protective face masks at the Randburg taxi rank in Johannesburg |
”I would like to invite young people to make a gesture of tenderness toward the elderly, especially those who are alone, at home and in residences, those who for many months have not seen loved ones,” the pope said.
”Send them a hug,” the pope said. ”They are your roots.”
Australian outbreak attributed to sick workers
Australia’s hard-hit Victoria state on Monday posted a new daily record of 532 new COVID-19 cases, and the government leader warned that a lockdown in the city of Melbourne would continue while infected people continued to go to work.
Melbourne is almost halfway through a six-week lockdown aimed at curbing community spread of coronavirus. Mask-wearing in Australia’s second-largest city became compulsory last week. The new cases and six deaths reported on Monday surpasses a previous record of 484 new infections reported on Wednesday last week.
Victoria Premier Daniel Andrews said the biggest driver of the new infections was people continuing to go to work after showing symptoms.
South Korea reports 25 new coronavirus cases
South Korea has reported 25 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing its national caseload to 14,175 infections and 299 deaths. South Korea’s Centres for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday said 16 of the new cases were tied to people arriving from abroad. The country in past days have reported dozens of cases among crew members of a Russia-flagged cargo ship docked in the southern port of Busan and hundreds of South Korean construction workers airlifted from virus-ravaged Iraq.
Among the nine local transmissions, eight were from the Seoul metropolitan area, which has been at the centre of a virus resurgence since late May.
Some other important developments
Faithful return to Mexico City churches with masks, gel
Temperatures were taken and anti-bacterial gel applied before the faithful walked through a disinfecting arch set up in front of centuries-old wood-and-stone doors. They sat spaced out on pews while robed priests donned face masks.
Mexico City’s Roman Catholic churches, including its main cathedral, began celebrating Mass again Sunday after three months of pandemic lockdown with a new normal that seemed to have more rules than faithful in the pews.
White House pushes narrow virus aid; Pelosi blasts GOP delay
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Sunday assailed Republican disarray over a new pandemic relief package as the White House suggested a narrower effort might be necessary, at least for now. The California Democrat panned the Trump administration’s desire to trim an expiring temporary federal unemployment benefit from $600 weekly to about 70% of pre-pandemic wages.
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