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Volunteers in Brazil and South Africa receive first doses of experimental vaccine – as it happened

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Vaccine developed at Oxford University; deaths in Latin America pass 100,000; Brazil records 39,436 new cases. This blog is now closed

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Wed 24 Jun 2020 19.20 EDTFirst published on Tue 23 Jun 2020 19.06 EDT
Key events
'A sobering reminder': global coronavirus cases to hit 10 million next week, says WHO – video

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Richard Partington
Richard Partington

British families falling out of work during the coronavirus crisis will get £1,600 less on average in benefits than they would have done without a decade of austerity imposed by the Conservatives.

Even after taking account of emergency additions to the welfare safety net launched as the virus spread to Britain earlier this year, the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) said benefits for out-of-work households were worth 10% less than in 2011.

A decade on from George Osborne’s first austerity budget in June 2010, the analysis from Britain’s leading tax and spending thinktank showed the impact was worse for families with children. For an average out-of-work household with children, the shortfall jumps to £2,900 a year or 12%, less than was available in 2011 before the cuts kicked in.

Texas Covid-19 cases hit all-time daily high as Houston hospitals near capacity

Amanda Holpuch
Amanda Holpuch

Texas recorded an all-time daily high of 5,489 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday as hospitals neared capacity in Houston.

The dramatic increase in cases prompted the governor, Greg Abbott, to tighten public health restrictions after resisting calls to slow the state’s reopening process.

Cases have steadily increased in Texas since March, but a surge in the past two weeks has activated concerns about the state’s ability to respond.

To cope with the surge, some adult ICU patients are being treated at Texas Children’s hospital in Houston, the country’s fourth-largest city.

“Just like that – in Houston we, the pediatricians at Texas Children’s Hospital, will now start seeing adult patients,” tweeted pediatrician Shubhada Hooli. “I’m up for the challenge, but please help us out. #WearAMask and stay home. I guess its time to retire my giraffe reflex hammer…”

Turkey isn’t considering tightening its lockdown restrictions even though the number of daily coronavirus infections registered since they were eased is “higher than anticipated”, the health minister said on Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters following the weekly meeting of the country’s scientific advisory council, Fahrettin Koca blamed the uptick in cases on widespread complacency and failure to comply with physical distancing, AP reports.

People wear protective face masks to curb the spread of coronavirus in Kizilay Square, Ankara, 24 June 2020. Photograph: Adem Altan/AFP/Getty Images

“We can say that the numbers are higher than what we anticipated,” Koca said. “We see that many people are under the perception that we have returned to normal. This perception must rapidly be deactivated.”

Turkey has witnessed an increase in the daily number of infections after the government authorised cafes, restaurants, gyms, parks, beaches and museums to reopen and eased stay-at-home orders for the elderly and young at the start of June.

The country has been registering average daily infections of around 1,260 since 12 June, up from around 800 to 900 previously.

Koca on Wednesday reported 1,492 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total infections registered in the country since March to 191,657. He also said there were 24 new Covid-19 deaths, taking the total to 5,025.

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Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now. I’ll be bringing you the latest pandemic news for the next few hours and, as always, would be delighted to hear from you. Tips, news, good tweets, comments and questions welcome:

Twitter: @helenrsullivan
Email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com

Brazil recorded 42,725 new confirmed cases in the past 24 hours as well as 1,185 new deaths resulting from the disease, the country’s health ministry has said.

The country has registered nearly 1.2 million cases since the pandemic began, while cumulative deaths total 53,830, according to the ministry.

Summary

Here are the latest key developments in our global coronavirus coverage so far on Wednesday:

  • The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he expects the number of coronavirus cases around the world to reach 10 million in the next week. Nearly 9.3 million people have tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 virus, and 478,289 have died of Covid-19, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University in the US.
  • Pandemic rule enforcement in Europe disproportionately impacted racialised individuals and groups, who were targeted with violence, discriminatory identity checks, forced quarantines and fines, according to a report by Amnesty International on 12 European countries.
  • Volunteers in Brazil and South Africa began to receive injections of an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at Oxford University. The vaccine, developed together with AstraZeneca, is one of dozens that researchers worldwide are racing to test and bring to market. It is already being tested on volunteers in Britain.
  • The award-winning poet and children’s author Michael Rosen has returned home after 47 days in intensive care with Covid-19. He went into intensive care in March, with his family at the time warning that he was “very poorly”. On 6 June he took his first steps, and by 12 June he was back on Twitter, sharing his progress as he began walking again.
  • The International Monetary Fund has said the global economy will take a $12tn (£9.6tn) hit from the Covid-19 pandemic after slashing its already gloomy growth projections for the UK and other developed countries in 2020. The IMF said it would take two years for world output to return to levels at the end of 2019.
  • Americans and Russians could be kept out when the EU reopens its borders to outsiders, according to documents seen by Reuters. Draft recommendations from the EU’s current presidency, Croatia, suggest allowing non-EU nationals in from countries with stable or decreasing infections, and those with a “comparable or better epidemiological situation”.
  • Iran’s deputy health minister has called for mask wearing to be made compulsory, as the country reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll in more than two-and-a-half months on Wednesday. The health ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday that 133 fatalities in the past 24 hours brought the country’s overall virus death toll to 9,996.
  • Portugal has tightened restrictions in and around Lisbon after recording thousands of new cases in recent weeks. From 21 May to 21 June, the country has documented more than 9,200 new cases – a rate per 100,000 inhabitants that ranks among the highest in Europe, behind only Sweden, according to data compiled by news agency AFP.
  • India has recorded its highest one-day rise in new coronavirus cases, with 15,968 infections detected in the past 24 hours. India has recorded its highest one-day rise in new coronavirus cases, with 15,968 infections detected in the past 24 hours. So far, 456,183 people in India have tested positive for the virus.
  • Latin America’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 100,000 on Tuesday, according to Reuters, while the number of infections, at 2.2m, doubled in less than a month. The region has seen a spike in cases and deaths even as the tide of infection recedes in Europe and parts of Asia.
  • France’s coronavirus contact-tracing app has alerted just 14 people that they have been near someone with the virus in three weeks since its launch, with only 68 people signalling they have tested positive on the app. Digital minister Cédric O said the app was installed 1.8m times since 2 June, but had been subsequently uninstalled by 460,000.
  • Austria has issued a warning against travel to the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia after a coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant there, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday.
  • Seven US states have reported their highest coronavirus patient admissions in the pandemic so far. Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas – which also confirmed a record daily case increase on Tuesday – each admitted record numbers of infected people to hospital, the Washington Post reported.
  • UK medical leaders warned of “real risk” of a coronavirus second wave just a day after the biggest lifting yet of lockdown restrictions in England. “While the future shape of the pandemic in the UK is hard to predict, the available evidence indicates that local flare-ups are increasingly likely and a second wave a real risk,” said the experts.
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In the Canadian province of Ontario, some people who test positive but who are asymptomatic will be allowed to return immediately to their workplaces with precautions, separated from those who do not have the virus, according to guidance released on Wednesday.

Reuters reported that the guidance document said “work self-isolation” outside of healthcare settings would be allowed for asymptomatic employees “deemed critical to operations” at local public health workers’ discretion and that employers would be responsible for ensuring they do not put others at risk.

The province is battling outbreaks that have killed three migrant farmworkers, and has started mass-testing asymptomatic farmworkers. The change could send some of them back to their jobs.

It was prompted by a cluster of farmworkers who tested positive but were all asymptomatic, said Ontario’s chief medical officer of health David Williams. “As we learn more, we change things, we adapt,” he told a briefing in Toronto.

The United Arab Emirates’ government has lifted its curfew, it has announced. “All members of society are allowed to freely enter and exit throughout the day without restrictions,” it said in an announcement also tweeted by the country’s National Emergency Crisis and Disaster Management Authority.

The Mexican health authorities are trying to understand how a set of newborn triplets became infected even though neither of their parents tested positive. Health authorities called the case “unheard of”.

The triplets, a girl and two boys, were tested four hours after being born last week in the central state San Luis Potosi, health authorities said.

Initially, health authorities said the mother was believed to be an asymptomatic carrier. But her tests later showed that neither she nor the father were infected.

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The number of deaths in France has risen by 11 to 29,731 on Wednesday, down sharply from Tuesday when the weekly data for nursing homes were included. That is the lowest increase in fatalities in five days. France’s death toll is the fifth-highest in the world.

The US has suffered 784 more deaths and recorded 34,313 cases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), has said. That takes the respective totals to 121,117 and 2,336,615.

Summary

Here are the latest key developments in our global coronavirus coverage so far on Wednesday:

  • The head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he expects the number of coronavirus cases around the world to reach 10 million in the next week. Nearly 9.3 million people have tested positive for the Sars-CoV-2 virus, and 478,289 have died of Covid-19, according to the tally kept by Johns Hopkins University in the US.
  • Pandemic rule enforcement in Europe disproportionately impacted racialised individuals and groups, who were targeted with violence, discriminatory identity checks, forced quarantines and fines, according to a report by Amnesty International on 12 European countries.
  • Volunteers in Brazil and South Africa began to receive injections of an experimental coronavirus vaccine developed by researchers at Oxford University. The vaccine, developed together with AstraZeneca, is one of dozens that researchers worldwide are racing to test and bring to market. It is already being tested in volunteers in Britain.
  • The award-winning poet and children’s author Michael Rosen has returned home after 47 days in intensive care with Covid-19. He went into intensive care in March, with his family at the time warning that he was “very poorly”. On 6 June he took his first steps, and by 12 June he was back on Twitter, sharing his progress as he began walking again.
  • The International Monetary Fund has said the global economy will take a $12tn (£9.6tn) hit from the Covid-19 pandemic after slashing its already gloomy growth projections for the UK and other developed countries in 2020. The IMF said it would take two years for world output to return to levels at the end of 2019.
  • Americans and Russians could be kept out when the EU reopens its borders to outsiders, according to documents seen by Reuters. Draft recommendations from the EU’s current presidency, Croatia, suggest allowing non-EU nationals in from countries with stable or decreasing infections, and those with a “comparable or better epidemiological situation”.
  • Iran’s deputy health minister has called for mask wearing to be made compulsory, as the country reported its highest daily coronavirus death toll in more than two-and-a-half months on Wednesday. The health ministry spokeswoman said on Wednesday that 133 fatalities in the past 24 hours brought the country’s overall virus death toll to 9,996.
  • Portugal has tightened restrictions in and around Lisbon after recording thousands of new cases in recent weeks. From 21 May to 21 June, the country has documented more than 9,200 new cases – a rate per 100,000 inhabitants that ranks among the highest in Europe, behind only Sweden, according to data compiled by news agency AFP.
  • India has recorded its highest one-day rise in new coronavirus cases, with 15,968 infections detected in the past 24 hours. India has recorded its highest one-day rise in new coronavirus cases, with 15,968 infections detected in the past 24 hours. So far, 456,183 people in India have tested positive for the virus.
  • Latin America’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic surpassed 100,000 on Tuesday, according to Reuters, while the number of infections, at 2.2m, doubled in less than a month. The region has seen a spike in cases and deaths even as the tide of infection recedes in Europe and parts of Asia.
  • France’s coronavirus contact-tracing app has alerted just 14 people that they have been near someone with the virus in three weeks since its launch, with only 68 people signalling they have tested positive on the app. Digital minister Cédric O said the app was installed 1.8m times since 2 June, but had been subsequently uninstalled by 460,000.
  • Austria has issued a warning against travel to the western German state of North Rhine-Westphalia after a coronavirus outbreak at a meatpacking plant there, Austrian chancellor Sebastian Kurz said on Wednesday.
  • Seven US states have reported their highest coronavirus patient admissions in the pandemic so far. Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas –which also confirmed a record daily case increase on Tuesday – each admitted record numbers of infected people to hospital, the Washington Post reported.
  • UK medical leaders warned of “real risk” of a coronavirus second wave just a day after the biggest lifting yet of lockdown restrictions in England. “While the future shape of the pandemic in the UK is hard to predict, the available evidence indicates that local flare-ups are increasingly likely and a second wave a real risk,” said the experts.

And that’s it from me, Damien Gayle, for the day.

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The World Health Organization’s director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said he expects the number of coronavirus cases around the world, now at approximately 9.3 million, to reach 10 million next week.

Dr Mike Ryan, head of the WHO emergencies programme, said the pandemic for many countries in the Americas had not yet peaked, and that it was ‘still intense’, especially in Central and South America.

'A sobering reminder': global coronavirus cases to hit 10 million next week, says WHO – video

Ireland is set to become the latest European country to launch a voluntary phone-tracking app next week to alert users if someone they have been in contact with develops Covid-19, the head of its health service operator said, Reuters reports.

Ireland’s Health Service Executive (HSE) announced plans to roll out the phone app in late March, just as the country went into lockdown, and initially expected it to be launched within 10 days.

HSE’s chief executive, Paul Reid, told a news conference on Wednesday that it has been approved by Ireland’s data protection agency and was awaiting final signoff by the government.

So far, 1,720 people have died from Covid-19 in Ireland, which has had a manual contact-tracing programme in place since its outbreak began at the end of February.

The number of confirmed cases has fallen to an average of 11 a day over the past week as the economy prepares to almost fully reopen next week, with just 37 patients in hospital compared to a peak of nearly 900 that threatened to overwhelm the health service in mid-April.

Ireland will adopt a decentralised model for its tracing app where the data will be held on the person’s mobile phone and not centrally by the health service, which authorities hope will alleviate privacy concerns.

“We’ve done our own research in the early stages of the trial, there is pretty much a positive pick-up, that people feel they will use it and would use it in the future. We’d be strongly encouraged by that,” Reid said.

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In South Africa, nervous volunteers were also receiving some of the first injections of an experimental coronavirus vaccine on Wednesday, according to the Associated Press.

The large-scale trial of the vaccine is being conducted in South Africa, Britain and Brazil (see previous post).

South Africa has nearly one-third of Africa’s confirmed cases with more than 106,000, including more than 2,100 deaths. The country reported its biggest one-day death toll so far on Tuesday, with 111 new fatalities recorded.

“I feel a little bit scared but I want to know what is going on with this vaccine so that I can tell my friends and others what is going on with the study,” one of the vaccine trial volunteers, Junior Mhlongo, said in Johannesburg.

A vaccine volunteer gets an injection at the Chris Hani Baragwanath hospital in Soweto, Johannesburg. Photograph: Siphiwe Sibeko/AP

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