Egypt loosens lockdown despite surging infections – as it happened

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27 Jun 202018.48 EDT

Summary

Jedidajah Otte

Here a short overview of the latest key developments:

• Coronavirus has killed at least 495,288 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December.
• The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States rose to more than 2.5 million on Saturday. More than 125,000 Americans have died of Covid-19, the highest known death toll from the disease in the world.
• The US states of Florida, Arizona, Nevada, South Carolina and Georgia have recorded daily highs for coronavirus infections on Saturday, highlighting the worsening spread of the virus in several southern and western states, which is prompting some of them to roll back their reopening plans.
• Thousands of people demonstrated in some 60 cities and towns across Spain on Saturday to demand a collective rebuilding of society to tackle the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, in the biggest demonstrations since the crisis began.
• Brazil recorded 38,693 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 1,109 additional deaths. The country has now registered 1,313,667 total confirmed cases of the virus and 57,070 deaths.
• A growing number of Covid-19 infections among people under 35 years of age is a “worrying trend,” Ireland’s chief medical officer said on Saturday as the country reported the highest number of new infections for two weeks.
• The Czech Republic has registered the biggest spike in Covid-19 cases in more than two months, with several centres where the disease is spreading fast, the health ministry said Saturday.
• Zurich’s health authority has ordered a 10-day quarantine for almost 300 guests and staff of a nightclub after a reveller tested positive for coronavirus and had been proven to have infected others.
• A global fundraising meeting on Saturday raised €6.15bn ($6.9bn) from the United States, the European Commission and numerous countries to fight Covid-19, with many participants stressing that an eventual vaccine should be available to anyone who needs it.
• Spain is to uphold a ban on cruise liners from docking at its ports to stop the spread of Covid-19, according to a ministerial order published on Saturday.
• The governor of Bethlehem announced Saturday the temporary closure of the Palestinian city to contain the spread of coronavirus after a sharp rise in infections in the occupied West Bank.

This blog will wrap up now, my colleagues in Australia will be updating you over the next few hours. Thanks for reading and writing in, goodnight.

Thousands of people hit the streets across Spain on Saturday to demand a collective rebuilding of society to tackle the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic, in the biggest demonstrations since the crisis began.

Called by the Workers Commissions and UGT unions, rallies took place throughout the day in some 60 towns and cities with organisers saying “many thousands” had taken part, without providing a figure.

Unions are demanding a concerted response to ensure social and economic reconstruction following a crisis that has dealt a hammer blow to Spain’s economy.

“We want the country to be rebuilt, we need a national agreement so this pandemic won’t be politically exploited,” UGT boss Pepe Alvarez told AFP in Madrid, where more than a thousand mask-wearing demonstrators held a socially-distanced march.

“We need to improve public services as part of a national agreement that leads to recovery and an improvement in our economy,” Alvarez said.

Although the government had done “more than any government before” through its furlough scheme and introducing a minimum basic income, there were still many people “who are really suffering”, he said.

Demonstrator Ana Sanchez de la Cueva, 61, said the aim was to ensure that ordinary people don’t end up paying for the crisis, either economically or in terms of their health.

“There are two reasons we’re here: to call for a proper economic recovery so we can all emerge from this crisis with dignity, and to demand that public services be strengthened,” she said.

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Brazil recorded 38,693 new cases of coronavirus in the past 24 hours and 1,109 additional deaths, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

The country has now registered 1,313,667 total confirmed cases of the virus and 57,070 deaths.

Rio de Janeiro’s mayor Marcelo Crivella moved forward the reopening of street commerce.

The establishments are authorised to operate between 11am and 5pm.

According to the mayor, the reopening was approved by the city council’s scientific committee.

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American Airlines Group Inc expects to have between 10% and 20% more workers than needed in July 2021, chief executive Doug Parker told employees at a town hall this week, and said that avoiding furloughs will be difficult.

Weathering a sharp hit to business due to the coronavirus pandemic, American and other US airlines have warned of furloughs in October, which is when government payroll aid for airlines expires, but said they were hoping to avoid them.

“It’s going to be even harder than I thought,” Parker said at an employee town hall on Wednesday, adding that “revenue is not coming back as fast as we’d like.”

As of the end of last year, American had 133,700 employees, more than any other US airline.

In October, American expects to have between 20% and 30% more workers than needed, Parker said, while adding that furlough decisions could revolve more around the July 2021 forecast of 10% to 20% excess workers, with potentially less pain for pilots than other employees such as flight attendants.

“It really makes zero sense to go furlough a pilot in October if you’re going to need that pilot again in July,” Parker said, noting the costly training needed to bring a pilot back from a furlough.

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As the lifting of lockdown restrictions in some US states are at least partially reversed amid rising infection numbers, similar relaxations could lead to similar results in England.

My colleagues Mark Townsend and Nosheen Iqbal report.

The Trump campaign has postponed US vice president Mike Pence’s campaign events in Florida and Arizona next week “out of an abundance of caution,” CNN reports.

The decision to postpone the events comes as both states and the country experience a surge in coronavirus cases.

Pence had a handful of campaign and political-related events scheduled as part of his trips to both states.

The vice president’s office did not provide an updated schedule for Pence’s trips.

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Coronavirus has killed at least 495,288 people since the outbreak emerged in China last December, according to a tally from official sources compiled by Agence France-Presse on Saturday.

At least 9,875,040 cases of coronavirus have been registered in 196 countries and territories. Of these, at least 4,903,500 are now considered recovered.

The tallies, using data collected by AFP from national authorities and information from the World Health Organization (WHO), probably reflect only a fraction of the actual number of infections.

Many countries are testing only symptomatic or the most serious cases.

Since 1900 GMT on Friday, 4,372 new deaths and 181,048 new cases were recorded worldwide.

The countries with the most new deaths were Brazil with 990, followed by Mexico with 719, and the United States with 523.

Three migrants who recently arrived from Turkey have tested positive for coronavirus on the Greek island of Lesbos, officials said Saturday.

The migrants were part of a group of more than 30 people picked up by a Greek coastguard vessel on 14 June, and taken to a screening facility far from the island’s overcrowded refugee camps.

That facility has now been placed under two-week quarantine.

More than 190 people have died from Covid-19 in Greece.

No cases have been reported in camps on the islands, where there are nearly 30,000 people crammed in facilities, Agence France-Presse reports.

Zurich’s health authority said on Saturday it had ordered a 10-day quarantine for almost 300 guests and staff of a nightclub after a reveller tested positive for coronavirus and had been proven to have infected others during his outing.

The man was at the Flamingo Club on 21 June and tested positive for Covid-19 on 25 June, the statement said, according to Reuters.

Five other people who were at the club with him have also tested positive since, it said.

As other European countries who have eased restrictions, Switzerland has seen a rise in new coronavirus infections.

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This week, the number of new infections has increased daily from 18 on Monday to 69 on Saturday, according to the Health Ministry.

Swiss nightclubs were allowed to reopen this month, but they are obliged to register their guests.

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the United States rose to more than 2.5 million on Saturday, according to a Reuters tally.

More than 125,000 Americans have died of Covid-19, the highest known death toll from the disease in the world.

The California Department of Public Health (CDPH) has reported a single day increase of 5,972 positive cases of coronavirus, with 60 deaths from Friday to Saturday, according to an update released on Saturday, CNN reports.

The CDPH also confirmed that the Golden State’s rate of positive testing is trending modestly upward in the 14-day average.

Florida, Arizona and Nevada are amon five US states that have recorded daily highs for coronavirus infections on Saturday, highlighting the worsening spread of the virus in several southern and western states, which is prompting some of them to roll back their reopening plans, Reuters reports.

Florida on Saturday morning reported 9,585 new infections in the last 24 hours, a record for a second day, while Arizona recorded 3,591 new cases, matching its prior record on 23 June.

South Carolina and Georgia reported 1,604 and 1,990 new infections, respectively, also marking new daily highs.

The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said on Saturday that he regrets having reopened the state’s economy: “If I could go back and redo anything, it probably would have been to slow down the opening of bars, now seeing in the aftermath of how quickly the coronavirus spread in the bar setting,” he said.

Nevada disclosed 1,099 new cases, double its previous record high.

The surge in cases has been most pronounced in a handful of southern and western states that reopened earlier and more aggressively, serving as a warning to the potentially illusory nature of any perceived progress in controlling the virus.

On Friday, as the United States recorded its largest daily case count of the pandemic, Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, said the government’s current strategy for finding and isolating infected people was “not working,” partly due to significant asymptomatic spread.

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The speaker of the National Assembly of Serbia, Maja Gojković, the defense minister Aleksandar Vulin and the head of government office for Kosovo and Metohija, Marko Đurić, have tested positive for Covid-19, media reports suggest.

All of them were present at the crowded victory celebration of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) following the election on Sunday, 21 June, European Western Balkans reports.

Portal NOVA reported on Friday evening that Speaker Gojković has been hospitalised, while Vulin and Đurić are in self-isolation, having developed no symptoms so far, according to Danas.

Several additional government officials in the Ministries of Defense and Foreign Affairs, as well as the president of the Business Chamber of Serbia, Marko Čadež, have also tested postive.

The Dominican Republic’s Ministry of Health reported 855 new coronavirus cases on Friday, as well as six new deaths, bringing the country’s total number of infection cases to 30,619.

The Caribbean country’s death toll now stands at 718, according to health authorities.

The Dominican Republic’s Covid-19 death rate is currently 2.34% of the total number of confirmed cases, CNN reports.

The use of medical face masks has been mandatory since 16 April and the majority of the population is complying with that rule.

The Dominican Government imposed a sanctions regime last week to punish people who do not wear a mask in public places, with fines ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 pesos (from 172 to 1,724 US dollar), Dominican Today reports.

On Sunday, a strict curfew that was in place for three months will end, and there will be no limits for citizens to move from one place to another at any time of the day, adding to the challenges the health authorities are facing.

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A global fundraising meeting on Saturday raised€6.15bn ($6.9bn) from the United States, the European Commission and numerous countries to fight Covid-19, with many participants stressing that an eventual vaccine should be available to anyone who needs it.

The pledging summit, part of a joint initiative by the EU executive and advocacy group Global Citizen, also included a globally televised and streamed fundraising concert featuring Miley Cyrus, Justin Bieber, Shakira, Chloe X Halle, Usher and others.

The Commission together with the European Investment Bank pledged €4.9b ($5.50bn), the United States $545m, Germany €383m, Canada C$300m ($219m) and Qatar $10m. Forty governments took part in the summit.

The money will be used for Covid-19 tests, treatments and vaccines, and also to support the world’s poorest and most marginalised communities, Reuters reports.

Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said it was crucial that everyone who needed it should have access to a vaccine.

“I am trying to convince high-income countries to reserve vaccines not only for themselves but also for low- and middle income countries. This is a stress test for solidarity,” she said.

Britain’s prime minister, Boris Johnson, concurred.

“If and when an effective vaccine is found, then we as world leaders have moral duty to ensure that it is truly available to all,” he said.

French president, Emmanuel Macron, was adamant about pooling efforts together.

“Let’s refuse an every man for himself approach, let’s continue to move forward together,” he said.

Italy, one of the hardest hit by the pandemic, echoed his sentiment.