The global coronavirus pandemic has infected nearly 25.9 million people with over 862,000 deaths from the disease. Here are updates for September 2:
Wednesday, September 2, 2020
Greece reports first virus case in Lesbos migrant camp
Greece recorded its first coronavirus case in the overcrowded migrant camp of Moria on the island of Lesbos, two migration ministry officials have said.
A 40-year old asylum seeker has tested positive for the virus and had been put in isolation, one of the officials told Reuters.
Authorities were trying to trace the people he had contacted, the official said.
The Moria facility, which hosts about 13,000 people, has been frequently criticised by aid groups for poor living conditions.
Since March 1, all migrants who reach Lesbos have been quarantined away from the island’s camps.
Syria medics dying for want of virus protection
Frontline staff battling the novel coronavirus in regime-held areas of Syria are dying in growing numbers for want of personal protective equipment, Human Rights Watch has reported.
It reported multiple deaths of doctors from Covid-19-related symptoms, many of which did not appear in government figures because no test was carried out.
“It is bewildering that as the obituaries for doctors and nurses responding to the Covid-19 pandemic pile up, official numbers tell a story at odds with the reality on the ground,” said HRW researcher Sara Kayyali.
Syria has recorded 2,830 cases, including 116 deaths, in government-held areas, but the health ministry has acknowledged it lacks the “capacity…to carry out widespread testing in the provinces”.
HRW said it had confirmed the deaths of 33 doctors from Covid-19-related symptoms from a list published in August, while official figures at the time recorded 64 confirmed deaths among the whole population.
Germany rules out new lockdown
Germany will not need another national lockdown over the winter to keep the coronavirus under control despite rising infections, Health Minister Jens Spahn said.
After initially keeping infections and deaths relatively low compared to its European neighbours, the number of new cases has accelerated in recent weeks, raising fears of a second wave.
Indonesia reports 3,075 new cases
Indonesia reported 3,075 new virus cases, bringing the country’s total tally to 180,646, data from the country’s health ministry website showed.
The Southeast Asian country also added 111 new deaths, taking the total number to 7,616, the highest coronavirus death toll in Southeast Asia.
Maldives tightens tourist virus rules after spike in cases
The Maldives has tightened entry requirements for tourists after a spike in virus infections at more than a dozen resorts, the foreign ministry said.
The Indian Ocean archipelago reopened its luxury resort islets in mid-July after a months-long lockdown, and did not require visitors to be tested or carry virus-free certificates when entering the country.
Since then, 29 local staff and 16 foreigners have tested positive at the resorts, officials said, where they were also being isolated.
Under the new guidelines, all tourists will be required to present a negative Covid-19 test result on arrival.
Pope holds first public audience in months
Pope Francis has held his first public general audience after a pause of nearly six months due to the virus outbreak.
Francis used the audience to call for solidarity as the way to exit the crisis.
Francis said: “The current pandemic has highlighted our interdependence: We are all linked to each other, for better or for worse.”
Ukraine reports record daily rise in virus cases
Ukraine registered a record 2,495 cases of the new coronavirus during the past 24 hours, the national security council said, up from a previous record of 2,481 cases.
Ukraine has imposed a temporary ban on most foreigners from entering the country until September 28 and extended lockdown measures until the end of October to contain a recent spike in cases.
It has so far reported a total of 125,798 infections.
South Korea sees jump in infections
South Korea has seen a triple-digit daily jump in reported coronavirus infections for the 20th straight day, prompting authorities in recent days to impose tough social distancing rules.
The Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said the 267 new cases took the country’s tally since the pandemic began to 20,449 reported infections with 326 deaths.
South Korea has seen a rise in infections since early last month, many associated with churches, restaurants and schools.
Authorities have recently restricted dining at restaurants and ordered the shutdown of churches, fitness centres and night establishments in the Seoul area as it struggles to track many of the new infections.
India reports 78,357 new virus cases
India registered 78,357 new coronavirus cases during the past 24 hours, raising its total over 3.7 million as the government eases pandemic restrictions nationwide to help the battered economy.
The nation of 1.4 billion people is fast becoming the world’s coronavirus epicentre with the third-highest caseload and death toll. It has been reporting the highest daily increases in new cases for more than three weeks, and at its current rate is likely to soon pass Brazil and ultimately the US in total reported cases.
The Health Ministry also reported 1,045 deaths, taking total fatalities up to 66,333. Its testing capacity of nearly 100,000 per day has been increasing but experts say it is not enough.
Germany cases climb to 244,855
The number of confirmed virus cases in Germany increased by 1,256 to 244,855, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed.
The reported death toll rose by eleven to 9,313, the tally showed.
Colombia toll climbs to 20,000
Confirmed deaths in Colombia due to Covid-19 topped 20,000 as cases surpassed 624,000, the health ministry said in its daily update.
The Andean country has so far reported 20,052 deaths and 624,069 cases of the novel coronavirus. Active cases stand at 133,155.
This week, Colombia ended its initial quarantine measures after nearly five months of national lockdowns.
Japan considering offering virus vaccine for free to all citizens
The Japanese government is considering offering the coronavirus vaccine for free to all citizens, Kyodo news reported.
The government has said it aims to secure enough coronavirus vaccines for every citizen by the middle of next year.
Australia’s Victoria state reports 90 new cases
A second wave of infections in Australia’s coronavirus hot spot, the state of Victoria, eased further on Wednesday as authorities look to loosen lockdown restrictions that have shut large swathes of the state’s economy.
Australia’s second-most populous state reported 90 new coronavirus cases, its third straight day of double-digit new cases, indicating the strict lockdown measures are reducing the infection rate.
Last month, daily new infections peaked at more than 700.
Melbourne, the state’s capital and Australia’s second-largest city, has entered its fourth week of a six-week lockdown with authorities scheduled to detail on Sunday the timetable for easing curbs.
Australia has detected nearly 26,000 infections since the pandemic began, with Victoria accounting for about 75 percent of those cases. The national death tally rose to 663 after Victoria reported six deaths in the last 24 hours.
Mexico passes 600,000 infections
Mexico has reported 6,476 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 827 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 606,036 cases and 65,241 deaths.
The government has said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Brazil nears four million cases, death toll at 122,596
Brazil has reported 42,659 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 1,215 deaths from the disease caused by the virus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said.
Brazil has registered 3,950,931 cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from Covid-19 has risen to 122,596, according to ministry data, in the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak outside the US.
Mainland China reports eight new cases
Mainland China has reported eight new Covid-19 cases, down from 10 a day earlier, China’s national health authority said.
The National Health Commission said in a statement all of the new Covid-19 cases were imported infections involving travellers from overseas, marking the 17th consecutive day with no local infections.
The number of new asymptomatic cases fell to 19 from 34 a day earlier. China does not count symptomless infections as confirmed cases.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 case s in mainland China now stands at 85,066, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
UN summit to discuss post-pandemic global governance
Niger, the current president of the UN Security Council, has said it will organise a September 24 videoconference between heads of state to discuss the future of global governance following the coronavirus pandemic.
The summit will debate “post-Covid-19 global governance in relation to the maintenance of international peace and security”, Niger’s UN Ambassador Abdou Abarry told journalists while presenting the Council’s programme for the month.
The session will take place during the annual UN General Assembly gathering of world leaders, which will take place this year mainly by videoconference due to the pandemic.
White House slams WHO over criticism of push for vaccine
The White House has pushed back on concerns expressed by the World Health Organization after a US health official said a coronavirus vaccine might be approved without completing full trials.
“The US will continue to engage our international partners to ensure we defeat this virus, but we will not be constrained by multilateral organizations influenced by the corrupt World Health Organization and China,” White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement.
“This president will spare no expense to ensure that any new vaccine maintains our own FDA’s gold standard for safety and efficacy, is thoroughly tested, and saves lives,” he said.
Large antibody study offers hope for vaccine efforts
Antibodies that people make to fight the new coronavirus last for at least four months after diagnosis and do not fade quickly as some earlier reports suggested, scientists have found.
Tuesday’s report, from tests on more than 30,000 people in Iceland, is the most extensive work yet on the immune system’s response to the virus over time and is good news for efforts to develop vaccines.
If a vaccine can spur production of long-lasting antibodies as natural infection seems to do, it gives hope that “immunity to this unpredictable and highly contagious virus may not be fleeting”, scientists from Harvard University and the US National Institutes of Health wrote in a commentary published with the study in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The results don’t necessarily mean that all countries’ populations will be the same, or that every person has this sort of response.
Other scientists recently documented at least two cases where people seem to have been reinfected with the coronavirus months after their first bout.
The new study does not establish how much or which type of antibody confers immunity or protection, which remains unknown.
Virus outbreak increases vigilance around IPL – Williamson
New Zealand cricket captain Kane Williamson has said an outbreak of Covid-19 in an Indian Premier League (IPL) team has raised some apprehension about the coming tournament and reminded him of the need to be vigilant about his health and surroundings.
Williamson is due to leave on Thursday to link up with the Hyderabad Sunrisers in the United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the tournament this year due to the growing number of infections in India.
The IPL said last Saturday that 13 members of the Chennai Super Kings, including two players, had tested positive for Covid-19 after arriving in the UAE and had been placed into isolation.
Players have also been warned about breaching their bio-security bubble during the tournament, which starts on September 19.
New Zealand’s men’s team have not played since March when their limited-overs series in Australia was abruptly postponed because of the coronavirus outbreak.
They are still expecting to host the West Indies, Pakistan, Australia and Bangladesh this summer.
Source: TRTWorld and agencies