England to quarantine all US arrivals amid coronavirus: Live
- Britain will end coronavirus quarantines for people arriving in England from more than 50 countries, including Germany, France, Spain and Italy – but not the United States
- India reported a single-day record for new COVID-19 cases with more than 20,903 infections, taking its total tally to over 625,000.
- The United Nations Security Council has unanimously adopted a resolution demanding an “immediate cessation of hostilities” for at least 90 days in key conflicts including those in Syria, Yemen, Libya, South Sudan and the Republic of Congo to tackle the coronavirus pandemic.
- Some 10.8 million people around the world have been diagnosed with the coronavirus, about 5.7 million have recovered, and more than 520,000 have died, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
Here are the latest updates.
Friday, July 3
09:45 GMT – Nigeria’s Kano lifts virus lockdown
Authorities in northern Nigeria’s biggest city Kano have lifted a three-month lockdown imposed to contain a coronavirus outbreak linked to hundreds of deaths.
State governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje announced the lifting of the curfew in a broadcast, insisting the key trading hub had seen a sharp drop in infections.
09:14 GMT – Virus hands Japan pension fund worst loss since 2008 crisis
Japan’s huge public pension fund, the world’s biggest, said Friday it had suffered its largest annual loss since the global financial crisis, as markets tumbled amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) said it recorded losses amounting to 8.28 trillion yen ($77 billion) for the fiscal year that ended in March.
“Stocks plunged in Japan and overseas due to risk-off investor sentiment,” the GPIF said in its annual investment report.
The loss was the most the fund had shed since its eye-watering 9.3-trillion-yen loss in the year that ended March 2009, as world financial markets plunged after Lehman Brothers collapsed in September 2008 [File:Issei Kato/Reuters]
08:48 GMT – Kazakhstan to lock down two more cities
Kazakhstan will lock down the eastern cities of Oskemen and Semey from July 5 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, the governor of the Eastern Kazakhstan province said.
The Central Asian nation bordering Russia and China will impose a second nationwide lockdown from the same date, but it will be softer than the first one and will allow some movement of people between provinces.
08:25 GMT – Coronavirus mortality in Italy is highest among poor, study shows
Poor Italians are significantly more likely to die of the coronavirus than higher-income groups, the country’s first significant study into the disease’s disproportionate social impact showed.
Low-income groups were also more likely to be forced to work during lockdown, in sectors such as agriculture, public transport and assistance for the elderly, ISTAT said, concluding that COVID-19 had “accentuated pre-existing inequalities”.
08:05 GMT – Steroid drug purchased for COVID patients in poor countries – UN
An initial purchase of the steroid dexamethasone, shown to be effective in treating severe or critical COVID-19 patients, will be made for up to 4.5 million people in low- and middle-income countries, agencies said.
The UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) is negotiating the advance purchase under the deal led by UNITAID and Wellcome, as part of the World Health Organization’s plan to accelerate access to therapeutics, a joint statement said.
Researchers estimated that the drug would prevent one death for every eight patients treated while on breathing machines and one for every 25 patients on extra oxygen alone [File: Yves Herman/Reuters]
07:45 GMT – Croatia to hold election amid virus, political uncertainty
Croatia is holding a parliamentary election this weekend amid a coronavirus outbreak and with no clear winner in sight as none of the main contenders appears set to garner a majority of votes.
The ballot on Sunday will take place as Croatia, like other parts of Europe, contends with a renewed spike in reported virus cases that followed the reopening of borders and easing of lockdown rules.
07:20 GMT – Tokyo records over 120 new virus cases
Tokyo reported 124 new cases of the coronavirus, Governor Yuriko Koike said, amid concerns that recent spikes in the Japanese capital could escalate.
On Thursday, Tokyo reported 107 new cases, which was the highest since May 2 when Japan was still under a pandemic state of emergency.
At its peak, Tokyo’s daily new cases exceeded 200.
07:00 GMT – England puts United States on ‘red-list’, will quarantine arrivals
Passengers arriving into England from the United States will not be exempted from quarantine rules, Britain’s transport minister Grant Shapps said.
Asked whether the United States would be on a ‘red-list’ of countries to which a 14-day quarantine period will apply, Shapps said: “I’m afraid it will be.”
06:35 GMT – South Korea has 63 newly confirmed virus cases
South Korea has reported 63 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 as health authorities scramble to mobilize public health tools to the southwestern city of Gwangju, where more than 50 people were found sickened over the past week.
The figures announced by the Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention brought the national caseload to 12,967 infections, including 282 deaths.
Hello, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my collegue Zaheena Rasheed.
05:29 GMT – In new record, India adds 20,000 virus cases
India reported another single-day record for new virus cases on Friday – 20,903.
The figure took the national total to 625,544. The Ministry of Health also reported an additional 379 deaths in the past 24 hours, taking fatalities up to 18,213.
With the current rate of infections, India is expected to surpass Russia’s 660,000 cases in coming days and become the third worst-hit country after the United States and Brazil.
A healthcare worker checks the temperature of a Mumbai slum resident during a medical campaign for COVID-19 [Francis Mascarenhas/ Reuters]
05:08 GMT – Monkeys infected with coronavirus developed short-term immunity
Test monkeys infected with the novel coronavirus responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic were protected from reinfection for up to 28 days later, according to a Chinese study published in the journal Science.
Scientists from Peking Union Medical College infected six rhesus macaques in their trachea with a dose of the SARS-CoV-2 virus. They developed mild to moderate symptoms, and took about two weeks to recover.
Twenty-eight days after the first infection, four of the six monkeys received another dose of virus, but this time, despite a brief rise in temperature, they showed no sign of reinfection, the study authors wrote.
While the monkeys displayed initial immunity, it is not clear how long such immunity will last in humans – it will be necessary to wait for months, or even years, to know if the millions of people infected at the start of the pandemic are protected from reinfection.
04:39 GMT – Kim Jong Un hails North Korea’s ‘shining success’ against COVID-19
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has praised what he described as his country’s “shining success” in holding off the new coronavirus, according to the state-run KCNA news agency.
“We have thoroughly prevented the inroad of the malignant virus and maintained a stable anti-epidemic situation despite the worldwide health crisis, which is a shining success achieved,” Kim told a meeting of the politburo of the ruling Workers Party on Thursday.
While Pyongyang has not confirmed any infections, its Ministry of Public Health has reported all 922 people checked so far have tested negative. Hundreds of people, mostly cargo handlers at seaports and land borders, are regularly quarantined for monitoring.
03:01 GMT – Portuguese government raises its stake in TAP
Portugal’s government announced it sealed a final deal with private shareholders of ailing flag carrier TAP to take a controlling stake in the airline while avoiding nationalisation.
“TAP is too important for the country for us to accept the risk of letting such a company fall,” Infrastructure Minister Pedro Nuno Santos told a news conference. “Fortunately, we avoided TAP’s nationalisation.”
According to the government, the state will increase its stake in TAP to 72.5 percent from the current 50 percent. Like other airlines, TAP asked for help in April after a collapse in demand for travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. The European Commission approved the rescue loan earlier this month.
02:14 GMT – Peru surpasses 10,000 coronavirus deaths
Peru’s COVID-19 death toll rose to 10,045 on Thursday, the health ministry said, a day after the Latin American nation began easing a lockdown in a bid to revive the economy.
The number of deaths rose by 185 in the last 24 hours, while the number of people infected rose to 292,004, the ministry said. Peru is Latin-America’s worst-hit country after Brazil.
Among the latest victims is the leader of the Awajun Indigenous people, Santiago Manuin, who died on Wednesday aged 63.
“Crear escuelas para que los Awajún seamos profesores, seamos dirigentes, seamos sujetos de nuestro mismo desarrollo”.
Lamentamos el fallecimiento del apu Santiago Manuin. Su sabiduría y entrega a los derechos del pueblo awajún deben persistir más que nunca. pic.twitter.com/xy0hYZBV5t
— Lugar de la Memoria 🇵🇪 (@LUMoficial) July 2, 2020
Manuin was recognised with Spain’s Queen Sofia Prize for his crusade in defence of the Amazon and indigenous rights.
02:01 GMT – UK to end quarantine rules for travellers from ‘low-risk’ countries
The British government said it is scrapping a 14-day quarantine rule for arrivals from a number of countries deemed “lower risk” for the coronavirus, including France, Spain, Germany and Italy.
The change takes effect on July 10, just more than a month after the United Kingdom began requiring international arrivals to self-isolate for two weeks. The full list of exempted countries will be announced later on Friday, the government said.
On Saturday, the government will also exempt several countries from its advice against overseas travel, meaning UK tourists can once again head abroad on vacation.
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said the changes are “good news for British people and great news for British businesses”. But he stressed that the government could reimpose quarantine restrictions “in countries we are reconnecting with”.
The changes announced apply only to England, as the devolved governments of other parts of the UK – Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – would “set out their own approach to exemptions”, the government said.
01:43 GMT – US coronavirus cases hit new global record
The United States reported more than 55,000 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, the largest single-day increase any country has ever reported, according to a Reuters tally.
The daily US tally stood at 55,274 late on Thursday, topping the previous single-day record of 54,771 set by Brazil on June 19.
Just two weeks ago, the US was reporting about 22,000 new cases a day. It has now reported more than 40,000 cases for seven straight days and broken records for new cases three days in a row, according to the tally.
01:20 GMT – US issues guidelines but no new rules for air travel
Federal agencies in the US said airlines should consider limiting capacity on planes to promote social distancing, but stopped short of requiring them to do so.
In a new report, the Transportation, Homeland Security, and Health and Human Services departments also recommended – but did not move to require – that travellers wear face coverings in airports and on planes. All leading US airlines now require passengers to wear masks, but regulators have refused a request by the airlines to make it a federal rule.
The agencies said airlines and airports should take steps to increase social distancing, clean surfaces touched by passengers, give specialised training to airline crews, and provide more information to help with contact tracing if passengers test positive for the virus.
00:34 GMT – In stark reversal, Texas issues statewide mask order
Greg Abbott, the governor of the US state of Texas, ordered that face coverings must be worn in public across most of the state.
The order requires “all Texans to wear a face covering over the nose and mouth in public spaces in counties with 20 or more positive COVID-19 cases, with few exceptions”.
He also banned gatherings of more than 10 people, and mandated social distancing of six feet (about two metres).
The Republican governor, who had pushed Texas’s aggressive reopening of the state economy in May, had previously said the government could not order individuals to wear masks. His prior virus-related orders had undercut efforts by local governments to enforce mask requirements.
00:11 GMT – Coronavirus outbreak hits Africa health workers
The World Health Organization (WHO) said more than 6,000 health workers have been infected with the coronavirus in 38 countries across its Africa region since the pandemic began.
Hundreds of health workers have already been infected in the latest hotspot of South Africa’s Gauteng province, which includes Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria. Across South Africa, more than 2,000 health workers have been infected. In Nigeria, nearly 1,000 have been sickened.
The WHO’s 47-country Africa region has the most severe health workforce shortage in the world, and concerns about adequate personal protective gear against the coronavirus are widespread.
Already a handful of countries have seen more than 10 percent of their health workers infected as of Tuesday: Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Niger, Mozambique and Burundi.
Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Zaheena Rasheed in Male, Maldives.
You can find all the key developments from yesterday, July 2, here.