The UK’s decision to persist with a quarantine regime for travellers from Portugal, which has hit the tourism-dependent country hard, is not supported by facts, its foreign minister said on Friday.
Portugal initially won praise for its quick response to the pandemic but a steady count of several hundred new cases per day in and around Lisbon in the past two months has worried authorities at home and abroad.
It was this month left off an initial list of more than 50 countries Britain considered safe enough for travel without coronavirus-related restrictions, and shunned again when London updated the list on Friday, adding more countries including Estonia and Slovakia.
Portugal regretted a decision “that is neither substantiated nor backed by the facts”, foreign minister Augusto Santos Silva tweeted.
The need for holidaymakers returning to Britain from Portugal to quarantine for 14 days has particularly affected the southern Algarve region, popular among Britons for its sandy beaches and golf courses.
Other European nations including Ireland, Belgium and Finland have also imposed travel restrictions on Portugal.
Spain, meanwhile, has stayed on the UK safe list, despite a sharp increase in new cases.
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Spain: second wave may already be happening
Spanish health officials have warned the country could already be experiencing a “second wave” of coronavirus, as France, Germany and Belgium all reported steep rises in their number of cases.
Countries across Europe have reminded people of the need for vigilance amid rising cases as the summer holiday season continues.
Spain’s health ministry logged 971 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday – the highest daily toll since the state of emergency was lifted at the end of June – and said there were 281 active outbreaks across the country.
María José Sierra, the deputy head of Spain’s centre for health emergencies, said that while the curve had been flattened, “community transmission” was being seen in north-eastern areas.
“It could already be a second wave, but that’s not the most important thing,” Sierra told reporters. “The most important thing is that we keep following what’s going on, see what measures are necessary, and take them early.”
You can read the full report from my colleagues here:
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India has given regulatory approval for Cipla Ltd to sell the anti-viral drug favipiravir to treat Covid-19, the drugmaker said on Friday, as coronavirus infections in the world’s third worst-hit nation show no sign of abating.
The drug controller general of India granted Cipla accelerated approval to make and sell favipiravir in an effort to meet the “urgent and unmet” need for coronavirus treatment options in the country, the company said.
Indian drugmakers including Glenmark Pharmaceuticals Ltd are racing to supply generic versions of favipiravir, originally developed by Japan’s Fujifilm Holdings Corp as Avigan for treating influenza.
India reported over 49,000 fresh cases of the novel coronavirus with 740 new deaths on Friday, marking the biggest daily surge in cases, as officials in some states complained of shortages of vital drugs for those hospitalized.
Cipla said it would launch favipiravir as “Ciplenza” in the first week of August, priced at 68 Indian rupees (91 cents) per 200 mg tablet.
Separately on Friday, much smaller Indian drugmaker Jenburkt Pharmaceuticals Ltd said it would launch its own version of favipiravir, priced at 39 rupees per tablet.
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Israeli police deployed water cannon and arrested 55 people overnight at a protest in Jerusalem against the government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.
A few thousand people had gathered in the city for what have become frequent rallies against Benjamin Netanyahu.
The prime minister, facing an ongoing corruption trial that includes a serious charge of bribery, is fighting fresh public discontent after a recent surge in Covid infections.
Demonstrators have rallied near Netanyahu’s official residence on Balfour Street in recent weeks. On Thursday night, the last day of the working week in Israel, mostly young people in masks and bandanas gathered at a nearby intersection for a predominantly peaceful protest, including a small outdoor orchestra performance.
Several hours later, there was a standoff, with police attempting to disperse the protesters, some of whom stood their ground. Later, authorities drove large white lorries into the area, spraying the crowds back. Protesters complained that the water cannon had pinned them down, even as they were attempting to leave.
Officers arrested 55 people for causing public disorder and disturbances, a police spokesman said. Many were released, but 20 people appeared in court on Friday morning.
You can read the full report from our Jerusalem correspondent, Oliver Holmes, here:
Singapore will finish testing for coronavirus cases among migrant workers living in dormitories by 7 August, about four months after authorities started quarantining tens of thousands of workers in their quarters due to mass outbreaks of the disease.
The vast majority of Singapore’s 49,375 cases are from cramped dormitories that house more than 300,000 mostly South Asian workers.
As of 20 July, there were 247,000 workers who had recovered or had tested negative for Covid-19, according to the manpower ministry’s website.
“By the first week of August, say around 7 August, we expect to clear all our dormitories,” said Lawrence Wong, a minister who co-chairs Singapore’s virus-fighting taskforce.
The government expects the number of new daily cases to be high for the coming two weeks as it completes testing in dormitories with a high prevalence of the disease, before tapering down thereafter.
While the city-state’s cases are expected to drop after the middle of August, authorities cautioned that the fight was not over, while a potential vaccine was unlikely to be available in Singapore until the end of next year.
The health ministry’s director of medical services, Kenneth Mak, said:
Given the global demand for these vaccines, it may not even be in the beginning of next year.”
“But perhaps towards the end of next year, when we might see vaccines produced in sufficient doses, and available then for procurement and to be delivered into Singapore.”
Every day, Mory DiMaurizio looks out his window at Niagara Falls and sighs in frustration. Not at the sight of the falls – one of the most stunning natural wonders of the world – but rather at the prospect of US tour boats with blue-ponchoed Americans.
“I see it many, many times a day. I look out the window, and there it is again,” said DiMaurizio, the vice-president and general manager of the main Canadian tour company, Hornblower Niagara Cruises.
His company’s boats can carry up to 700 people, but Ontario’s strict social distancing rules have only permitted them to carry six passengers at a time.
In contrast, the US-owned Maid of the Mist boats – which can normally hold around 500 people – are operating at 50% capacity.
American tourist boat Maid Of The Mist, limited to 50 % occupancy under New York state’s rules amid the spread of the coronavirus disease, on Tuesday in Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada. Photograph: Carlos Osorio/Reuters
The stark difference reflect radically different approaches that Canada and the US have taken to tackling the coronavirus pandemic – and their dramatically contrasting outcomes.
‘It’s like night and day’: Trudeau’s and Trump’s Covid-19 responses fuel wildly different outcomesRead more
The US side of the falls lies within New York state, an area with a population of 19.5 million, and which has seen 414,000 Covid-19 cases and 32,000 deaths.
On the Canadian side, Ontario – with a population of nearly 15 million – has seen 38,000 coronavirus cases and 2,755 deaths.
You can read more on the stark Covid-19 divide between Canada and the US – including on travel bans and quarantine rules, as well as healthcare – from reporter Tracey Lindeman here:
Russia plans to resume some international flights from 1 August, deputy prime minister Tatiana Golikova said on Friday, but the list of destinations will initially be limited to Tanzania, Turkey and the United Kingdom.
International flights were grounded on 30 March after the imposition of lockdown measures to curb the spread of Covid-19, which has infected more than 800,000 people in Russia.
Golikova said the falling number of coronavirus infections had allowed Russia to resume flights from airports in Moscow, St. Petersburg and Rostov-on-Don.
Flights will resume between London in the United Kingdom, Turkish cities Istanbul and Ankara and the island of Zanzibar in Tanzania from next Saturday. More holiday destinations in Turkey would be added from 10 August, Golikova added.
Golikova said Russia would take care to ensure that the resumption in flights “does not lead to a new appearance of imported (coronavirus) cases on Russian territory”.
Russia continues to report thousands of new coronaviurs infections daily. Its nationwide tally is 800,849, the fourth-highest in the world, with 13,046 deaths.
Several dozen protesters in masks gathered in front of Japan’s National Stadium in Tokyo on Friday, the day the Olympic Games should have begun, to protest against holding them next year given the danger of Covid-19.
The Games were postponed in March due to the coronavirus crisis and the government is determined that they go ahead next year, but opposition is growing in the country over doubts that a big sporting event can be held safely even next year.
“I believe it’s a massive mistake,” said Kai Toyama, 44, an artist who travelled from the capital’s suburbs to attend the small rally. It was irresponsible for Japan to go ahead with the Olympics, he added.
“I think more people should be vocal about the fact that we shouldn’t hold the Olympics during the coronavirus,” said Toyama, who wore a long black coat adorned with the Olympic symbol and the words “declaration of no Olympic Games”.
A recent poll by Kyodo News found that fewer than a quarter of respondents were in favour of holding the Games as scheduled next year, a dramatic turnaround from the excitement during Tokyo’s successful campaign to host the Olympics back in 2013.
At the time, support among Tokyo residents for hosting the Games was as high as 70%, a crucial component in Tokyo’s pitch to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
Olympic organisers have said all possible efforts will be made to ensure the 11,000 athletes expected to take part will be able to travel safely to Tokyo and compete in world class surroundings.
But experts have said this will be difficult without the development and global distribution of an effective vaccine for the coronavirus.
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Boris Johnson, the UK’s prime minister, has said people who are opposed to vaccinations are “nuts” as he promotes an expanded programme of flu jabs that ministers hope will ease pressure on the health system if there is a second wave of coronavirus this winter.
Visiting a doctors’ surgery in London on Friday, the prime minister said to staff: “There’s all these anti-vaxxers now. They are nuts, they are nuts.”
Johnson added that while he was worried about a second wave of Covid-19, he believed the UK would be through the crisis by mid-2021.
“Whether it came from … a bat, a pangolin or however it emerged, it was a very, very nasty thing for the human race,” he said. “And I think by the middle of next year we will be well on the way past it.”
You can read the full report from our political correspondent, Peter Walker, here:
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South Africa shuts schools for a month
President Cyril Ramaphosa has shut public schools in South Africa for a month, and pledged to crack down on corruption in aid and procurement spending related to the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
The announcement came a day after researchers revealed that excess mortality data suggested that South Africa’s Covid outbreak had contributed to very substantially more deaths over a 10-week period from early May than official figures suggested , and among further steep increases in the number of confirmed cases in the country.
There are now more than 400,000 cases of Covid-19 in South Africa with more than 6,000 deaths.
“We have taken a deliberately cautious approach to keep schools closed during a period when the country is expected to experience its greatest increase in infections,” President Ramaphosa said during a TV address to the nation on Thursday evening.
“This has also been the experience in a number of other countries where schools have opened and have also had to close.”
Schools were shut during a strict lockdown imposed in March and April.
Ramaphosa’s address received a mixed reception. Some critics claimed that government policy is overly influenced by the concerns of key constituencies of the ruling African National Congress party, including teachers’ unions. Others highlighted the failure to investigate and convict senior ANC officials and other individuals linked to a series of corruption scandals.
The president said that 36 cases of Covid-related graft were already at an advanced stage of investigation, and that substantial fines had been paid by companies for price fixing during the outbreak.
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France has reported a rise in the number of confirmed coronavirus cases after more than 1,000 new infections were recorded in 24 hours.
In the week of 6-13 July, the national health authority, Santé Publique France said there was a 27% increase in the number of cases. This compared with 21% and 13% the previous weeks and could not be explained by an increase in testing, which was only 3% in the same week.
Santé Publique said there had been an rise in Covid-19 cases among the over-75s and an increase in cases in care homes. The authorities say there has also been an increase in coronavirus cases among young adults.
The increases were due to people dropping their guard and not systematically employing health safety measures including keeping a 1-metre distance, they said.
“Santé Publique France and the Assurance-Maladie observe a slackening of the application of barrier gestures which results in an increase in the number of contacts at risk per patient with Covid-19, and less adherence to physical distancing in particular.
During the summer and holidays, it may seem artificial to greet each other at a distance, talk from a distance, wash hands regularly and wear masks in enclosed spaces, but this individual and collective effort is crucial to prevent the virus from encroaching on our freedom and the epidemic from rebounding,” read a statement.
On Friday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, held a meeting of the country’s defence council at the Élysée to discuss the rise in cases and consider new measures including whether to tighten controls French borders with Belgium and Spain and possible quarantine measures for international passengers at airports.
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Hong Kong’s sudden spike in coronavirus cases may have stemmed from its willingness to let seafarers skip quarantine while changing ships in the city, a leading health expert said.
After its previous success tackling the disease and ending local transmission, case numbers in the densely packed finance hub increased this month, sparking fears of a new outbreak spreading out of control.
The city reported 123 new infections Friday, a new daily record, bringing the total tally to 2,372 with 16 deaths. Most of the new cases were locally transmitted.
Some health experts have blamed an exemption from the usual 14-day quarantine which the government granted to “essential personnel” including cross-boundary truckers, aircrew and sea crew.
But officials have said the arrangement was necessary, while insisting it was a “misunderstanding” that the new wave was attributable to the exemption.
After analysing virus samples from recent confirmed cases, Gabriel Leung, dean of the University of Hong Kong’s medical school, said on Thursday the virus’ resurgence most likely stemmed from such imported cases.
He said the wave was “probably because of the multiple imported (cases), it could be the crew members or sailors exempted from quarantine”.
“When they entered Hong Kong, there were no immediate quarantine measures or testing arrangements. You could imagine, some of the crew members, the hotel they stay in maybe is downtown,” he said.
The Afghan health ministry has urged people to stay indoors and avoid gatherings for the upcoming Eid celebrations as the number of confirmed coronavirus related deaths has reached 1,225.
Ahmad Jawad Osmani, the country’s acting health minister told a press conference on Thursday that hospitals were filled with Covid-19 patients.
Osmai said that Afghanistan is still in the midst of the outbreak. “We are in a better position to fight with coronavirus because the percentage of people infected in Afghanistan is dropping. The number of people visiting hospitals has also decreased, but that does not mean that we will not follow medical instructions,” he added.
The health ministry in the country recorded 14 new deaths from Covid-19 on Friday. In its latest update, it said the number of people who tested positive for the virus had reached 35,988, an increase of 60 on the day before.
Most new deaths were reported in Kabul. The capital is the country’s worst affected area with 489 deaths and around 15,000 confirmed cases. Another death was reported in Helmand province.
The United States has allocated more than $36.7 million to help Afghanistan address the Covid-19 pandemic, and expedited $90 million through the World Bank to support Afghanistan’s national health and education sectors and local government needs, the US embassy in Kabul announced Thursday.