Coronavirus ’emergency’ puts Jakarta back in lockdown: Live news

• The Indonesian capital will go back into lockdown in a bid to contain an escalating outbreak that has pushed hospitals to the brink of collapse.

• Some 27.7 million people around the world have now been diagnosed with the coronavirus and 901,050 have died, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Some 18.6 million people have recovered.

Here are the latest updates:

Thursday, September 10 

03:05 GMT – Taoist priest honours China’s pandemic dead with memorial tablets

In a room inside a hillside Taoist monastery in China’s Shandong province is a collection of 558 memorial tablets inscribed with the names and home towns of people who died after contracting the coronavirus or while battling the pandemic.

Some of them, like Li Wenliang, are household names in China. Others, like Liu Hewei, are not.

“A person’s true death is when the whole world has forgotten them,” said Taoist priest Liang Xingyang, who started the collection on Jan. 29, shortly after Chinese authorities announced that the virus could pass between humans.

“No matter what religion or beliefs they hold, their spirit deserves to be passed on. In fact, they live on in our hearts.”

02:40 GMT – Coronavirus might invade the brain: preliminary study

A preliminary study has found headaches, confusion and delirium experienced by some Covid-19 patients could be the result of the coronavirus directly invading the brain.

According to the paper, which was led by Yale immunologist Akiko Iwasaki, the virus is able to replicate inside the brain, and its presence starves nearby brain cells of oxygen, although the prevalence of this is not yet clear.

S Andrew Josephson, chair of the neurology department at the University of California, San Francisco, praised the techniques used in the study and said “understanding whether or not there is direct viral involvement of the brain is extraordinarily important.” But he added that he would remain cautious until the paper underwent peer review.

02:25 GMT – Pressure in Victoria to lift nighttime curfew

Australia’s health minister says the state of Victoria should consider lifting a nighttime curfew in Melbourne if it wasn’t imposed for health reasons.

The state’s been under pressure over the 8pm (10:00 GMT) – 5am (19:00 GMT) curfew – one of a number of strict measures imposed to stifle a surge in coronavirus that emerged in early August – since the chief health officer told local radio he hadn’t recommended the policy. 

State premier Daniel Andrews has said it was introduced to make it easier for police to enforce the other lockdown measures, which remain in force until September 28. The curfew’s been fuelling quite a lot of discussion on social media.

The only other places I’m aware have used curfews are those with crisis-level epidemics (New York, Spain at their peak) and autocratic governments in Africa https://t.co/dvgLhS21Yz

— Max Walden (@maxwalden_) September 10, 2020

“This is an unprecedented assault on civil liberties.

“If it’s necessary … fair enough. But where’s the evidence? Where’s the advice it would be?”

Neil Mitchell understands police weren’t consulted before the introduction of the curfew. https://t.co/eiTxm4D8Vh

— 3AW Melbourne (@3AW693) September 9, 2020

I know the curfew in Melbourne has stopped me from making an 11pm Maccas run at least twice in the last 6 weeks.

So that’s good… right?

— Christopher Johnson (@Dream_Brother_) September 10, 2020

02:15 GMT – Tokyo mulls lowering alert level as cases ease

Japanese broadcaster NHK says Tokyo is considering lowering the alert level in the capital because cases are easing.

The capital’s currently at the highest level.

At the national level, officials will meet on Friday to consider easing restrictions on large scale events.

01:10 GMT – COVID-19 widens gap between rich and poor: Save the Children

The COVID-19 pandemic has widened the gap between rich and poor, boys and girls, according to a new global survey by Save the Children.

In the six months since the pandemic was declared, the most vulnerable children have disproportionately missed out on access to education, healthcare, and food, and suffered the greatest protection risks, the UK-based group said.

The survey, based on the experience of 25,000 children and their caregivers across 37 countries, found:

• Two-thirds of the children had no contact with teachers at all during lockdown, while eight in ten believed they had learned little or nothing since schools closed.
• Some 93 percent of households that lost over half of their incomes due to the pandemic reported difficulties in accessing health services.
• Violence at home doubled to 17 percent when schools were closed.

“To protect an entire generation of children from losing out on a healthy and stable future, the world needs to urgently step up with debt relief for low-income countries and fragile states, so they can invest in the lives of their children,” Inger Ashing, Save the Children’s CEO, said in a statement.

“The needs of children and their opinions need to be at the centre of any plans to build back what the world has lost over the past months, to ensure that they will not pay the heaviest price.” 

00:30 GMT – Jakarta heads back to lockdown amid coronavirus ’emergency’

Jakarta governor Anies Baswedan says the Indonesian capital will head back into lockdown as it steps up efforts to tackle what he said was an “emergency – more pressing than the start of the pandemic.”

From Monday, all offices will be closed except for businesses in 11 “essential” fields. Entertainment venues will be shut down and all gatherings banned. Religious events will only be allowed at the village level for people who live in the area, he added.

Baswedan said the measures were necessary because modelling showed the capital’s hospitals would be overwhelmed by September 17 if no action was taken.

Indonesia has recorded 8,336 deaths from coronavirus, the most in Southeast Asia.

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Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Read all the updates from yesterday (September 9) here.