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Tuesday 26 May 2020 20:18
Follow latest developments on coronavirus pandemic
The number of deaths linked to coronavirus in England and Wales has passed 40,000, according to the Office for National Statistics.
The death toll was announced after the World Health Organisation warned countries which lift their coronavirus lockdowns too early risk facing an “immediate second peak” of infections. Dr Mike Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies head, said the virus could “jump up at any time” even in countries where infections have been falling.
Meanwhile, the a clinical trial into a malaria drug touted by Donald Trump as a Covid-19 preventative has been halted over safety fears. The WHO said testings involving hydroxychloroquine had been suspended while “data is reviewed by the data safety monitoring board”.
The UK is proposing that key UN climate talks postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic will be held in November 2021, it has emerged.
In a letter to UN member states seen by the PA news agency, the UK has proposed the Cop26 talks, which were originally due to be held in Glasgow in November 2020, could be moved to November 1-12 2021.
At the beginning of April, an announcement from the UN’s climate body, the UNFCCC, and the UK
Government said the summit would be pushed back to 2021 in light of the global pandemic, with dates to be decided.
It is understood the proposed dates, which come after wide-ranging consultation, will be decided on by the UNFCCC’s Cop bureau, with discussions on the topic at the bureau’s next meeting on May 28.
Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli has said that he caught coronavirus but had fully recovered by March.
After attending hospital to donate blood to Covid-19 research, the singer posted on Facebook, writing: “The pandemic which has shaken the world has also affected – albeit mildly – me and certain members of my family.
“Out of respect for those for whom contracting the virus has had more serious consequences, I decided it would be best not to share the news. I certainly didn’t want to unnecessarily alarm my fans and also wished to protect my family’s privacy.
“We were fortunate enough to have a swift and full recovery by the end of March.
“Given the chance to donate blood to help find a cure for Covid, my response was an immediate ‘yes’.
“A modest – but fundamental – gesture, through which I am playing my small part.”
The White House criticised Joe Biden for wearing a mask at an outdoor Memorial Day ceremony but not while “in his basement” doing television appearances with wife Jill Biden.
Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany described administration guidelines for the coronavirus as donning a mask outdoors as “recommended but not required.”
Because Mr Biden kept his distance from others at the wreath-laying event, Ms McEnany called his decision to cover his face “not data-driven.”
More below:
The Americas have emerged as the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization said in a briefing as a US study forecast deaths surging in Brazil and other Latin American countries through August.
“Now is not the time for countries to ease restrictions,” Carissa Etienne, WHO director for the Americas and head of the Pan American Health Organization, said via videoconference.
The Americas have registered more than 2.4 million cases of the new coronavirus and more than 143,000 deaths from the resulting COVID-19 respiratory disease. Latin America has passed Europe and the United States in daily infections, she said.
“Our region has become the epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic,” Etienne said, as other PAHO directors warned there are “very tough” weeks ahead for the region and Brazil has a long way to go before it will see the pandemic end.
Germany’s government and its state premiers have agreed to extend until 29 June social distancing rules used to contain the coronavirus pandemic, a senior government official said.
Tuesday’s deal follows a row over how fast to ease lockdown measures that have helped Europe’s most populous country weather the outbreak with a relatively low number of deaths.
Chancellor Angela Merkel originally suggested extending social distancing rules of at least 1.50 metres until 5 July as the conservative leader is worried about a second wave of cases that could require another costly lockdown.
Colosseum to receive visitors after three-month shutdown
Rome’s Colosseum will start receiving visitors again after three months of shutdown during Covid-19 containment measures.
To lower the risk of possible contagion at one of Italy’s most popular tourist attractions, tourists must wear protective masks and have their temperatures taken before entering the ancient arena, which re-opens to tourism on 1 June.
Entrance times will be staggered to discourage crowding and tickets must be bought online.
A reduced-price ticket will be available for afternoon visitors in an effort to encourage Romans to visit the monument at the end of their working day, especially while Italy awaits for tourism from overseas to resume.
Tickets to the Colosseum also allow entrance to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill.
But tourists to those two sites will no longer be able to wander at will through the sprawling ancient ruins. Instead, they will have to follow fixed paths.
Church of England bishops receive death threats over Dominic Cummings comments
Several British bishops have received death threats after they criticised the government on Twitter for its handling of the Dominic Cummings debacle, Rory Sullivan reports.
Following their tweets aboutthe government’s lack of transparency over Mr Cummings’ now notorious trip to County Durham, some bishops were sent threatening messages.
Dr John Inge, the Bishop of Worcester, is one of the senior clergy members who has spoken out against the prime minister in recent days and who has been sent a death threat for doing so.
After the prime minister’s press briefing on Sunday afternoon, he tweeted: “The PM’s risible defence of Cummings is an insult to all those who have made such sacrifices to ensure the safety of others.”
In a later statement, Dr Inge explained that he made the comments because the public “deserved a better explanation” for the senior aide’s actions during lockdown.
Dominic Cummings broke three lockdown rules, former health secretary Jeremy Hunt says
Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt has added to the torrent of criticism of Dominic Cummings by saying he broke lockdown rules in three separate ways.
Mr Cummings was wrong in coming back into work when he had been with his wife who was ill; in driving to Durham instead of staying at home, and in visiting Barnard Castle, Mr Hunt said.
“These were clearly mistakes – both in terms of the guidance which was crystal clear, and in terms of the signal it would potentially give out to others as someone who was at the centre of government,” he wrote in a letter to a constituent.
Government ‘looking into’ letting people visit another household
Asked why people could not visit different households, such as where grandparents live, but non-essential shops and schools would reopen, Mr Hancock said: “One of the challenges is that it is very difficult to know where the virus has passed from and to.
“There is also a yearning to see people in another household, and we are looking at how we can make this happen in a safe way.”
UK can begin to replenish PPE stockpiles, health secretary says
Matt Hancock, the health secretary, said the UK can now begin to replenish its personal protective equipment (PPE) stockpiles after brokering new deals and increasing manufacture.
He told the daily Downing Street press conference: “I can announce that we have now signed contracts to manufacture two billion items of PPE here in the UK.
“Around the world, we’ve signed deals with over 100 new suppliers including agreeing contracts for a further 3.7 billion gloves.
“While we continue to improve the logistics and work hard to get everyone the PPE they need, these new supplies mean we’re not simply keeping up with demand, we’re now able to begin to replenish our stockpiles.”
Spain’s death toll reaches 27,117
Spain’s Health Ministry said a total of 27,117 people had died from the coronavirus since the beginning of the outbreak.
Confirmed cases of the virus reached 236,259, the ministry said.
Yesterday, the government revised down the country’s cumulative death toll by nearly 2,000 after checking data provided by regions, a move that drew sharp criticism from political opponents.
Boris Johnson invites Vladimir Putin to summit on vaccine development
Boris Johnson has invited Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, to attend an online summit on the development of a coronavirus vaccine.
The British Embassy said Mr Johnson had officially invited Mr Putin to attend the Global Vaccine Summit 2020 hosted by Britain on 4 June.
The embassy statement indicates the summit will focus on securing the critical support required for Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, to “continue its vital work and to help ensure that any vaccine developed for Covid-19 is available for the whole world.”
Several Russian labs have been developing anti-coronavirus vaccines and testing on humans was expected to start next month.
Venezuela’s health system ‘grossly unprepared’ to deal with coronavirus, report says
A report says Venezuela’s broken health system is “grossly unprepared” to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, warning overcrowding and limited access to water in hospitals and homes make it likely the coronavirus illness will rapidly spread.
The report by Human Right Watch and Johns Hopkins University’s Centers for Public Health and Human Rights and for Humanitarian Health says the massive exodus of Venezuelans and crossing of the country’s borders due to the pandemic is increasing the risk of spread.
The report says, Venezuela had 1,121 confirmed cases of Covid-19 and 10 deaths on Monday.
But “the real number is almost certainly much higher, given the limited availability of reliable testing, limited transparency, and the persecution of medical professionals and journalists who report on this issue.”
Human Rights Watch and Johns Hopkins urged UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres and UN humanitarian chief Mark Lowcock to lead efforts to address this “humanitarian emergency.”
They called on the Lima Group of mostly conservative-run regional countries seeking to defuse the crisis in Venezuela as well as the United States and the European Union to press Maduro to “immediately open doors to a full-scale, UN-led humanitarian response to prevent catastrophic spread of Covid-19.”
Italy’s Red Cross calls for citizens to test blood for coronavirus antibodies
Italy’s health minister is appealing to citizens to answer the Red Cross call for a blood test to determine if they have antibodies to COVID-19.
Red Cross volunteers began making phone calls today to a representative sample of people throughout Italy.
Roberto Speranza told Sky TG24 TV the goal is to better understand how many people have developed antibodies.
Experts say many people without COVID-19 symptoms in the country where Europe’s outbreak began were likely infected but were never tested. Mr Speranza said the blood test results of 150,000 people can be applied to the entire country.
Mr Speranza said people with antibodies will quickly receive a test for Covid-19 to see if they have an active infection. Italy is considering a tentative lifting of restrictions of travel between regions in the country on 3 June.
Scientists have cautioned they don’t know if antibodies guarantee immunity, and if they do, how long such immunity lasts.
Americas becomes new pandemic epicentre, WHO says
The World Health Organisation (WHO) considers the Americas the new epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, and now is not the time for countries to ease restrictions, officials said in a briefing.
Carissa Etienne, WHO director for the Americas and head of the Pan American Health Organisation, said via videoconference that outbreaks were accelerating in countries such as Brazil, where the number of deaths reported in the last week was the highest in the world for a 7-day period since the coronavirus pandemic began.
Hydroxychloroquine results expected next month, WHO says
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said a safety team would review data on hydroxychloroquine by next month, a day after officials cited safety concerns that prompted them to suspend use of the malaria drug in a global trial in Covid-19 patients.
The WHO called time on using the drug in its multi-country trial, called Solidarity, after a study published in British medical journal The Lancet found patients randomised to get hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) had increased mortality rates and higher frequency of irregular heartbeats.
Donald Trump and others have pushed HCQ as a possible treatment for the disease.
“A final decision on the harm, benefit or lack of benefit of hydroxychloroquine will be made once the evidence has been reviewed by the Data Safety Monitoring Board,” the WHO said.
“This review will include data from the Solidarity Trial and other ongoing trials, as well as any evidence published so far. It is expected by mid-June.”
Department of Health refuses to comment on why it cannot provide testing figures
The Department of Health has declined to say why it cannot provide figures for how many people are being tested for coronavirus.
A daily tally of coronavirus tests is still being provided, but not the breakdown of how many people this includes.
A spokesman said “technical difficulties” meant the number of people being tested cannot be reported but declined to say what these issues were.
The most recent data shows there were 109,979 tests carried out on 25 May.
Spanish death toll reaches 27,000
Spain’s Health Ministry reported that a total of 27,119 people had died from the coronavirus since the beginning of the outbreak.
Confirmed cases of the virus reached 236,259, the ministry said.
Today, the government revised down the country’s cumulative death toll by nearly 2,000 after checking data provided by regions, a move which drew sharp criticism from political opponents.
Around 90 5G masts attacked during lockdown
The number of attacks on mobile phone masts has climbed to around 90 since the coronavirus lockdown began, the UK’s network trade body has revealed.
MobileUK said it has currently recorded 87 arson incidents against network towers across the country, but warned there might be a delay on information from over the bank holiday weekend.
Attacks against mobile masts have surged since March amid conspiracy theories linking 5G technology to the spread of Covid-19, a claim experts and scientists have called unproven, “baseless” and “utter rubbish”.
One attack reported in April was on a mast serving the Nightingale hospital in Birmingham.
“Theories being spread about 5G are baseless and are not grounded in credible scientific theory,” Mobile UK has repeatedly argued.
“Mobile operators are dedicated to keeping the UK connected, and careless talk could cause untold damage.
“Continuing attacks on mobile infrastructure risks lives and at this challenging time the UK’s critical sectors must be able to focus all their efforts fighting this pandemic.”
Half of all Covid-19 tweets could be from bots spreading conspiracies
Almost half of all Twitter accounts discussing Covid-19 online could be bots pushing conspiracies or so-called cures, new research suggests.
Computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University processed more than 200 million tweets discussing the Covid-19 virus posted to Twitter since January.
They discovered that about 45 per cent were sent by Twitter accounts that had robotic behaviour, making it possible that millions of automated messages were posted online to disrupt discussion, reports Gino Spocchia.
Researchers added that the tweets appeared to create division in America on coronavirus, but that they could not confirm what individuals or groups are behind the bot accounts.
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