Authorities in Melbourne have ordered 3,000 people to stay in their tower block homes for at least five days, in the harshest shutdown of Australia’s coronavirus pandemic, and in northern Spain 200,000 people have been put back into lockdown.
The latest battles against a virus that has proved able to spread stealthily and fast, even in countries that appear to have it under control, came as the US marked the Fourth of July holiday weekend with a record rise in cases.
Another 53,000 cases were reported on Friday, with Alabama, Alaska, Idaho, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee all setting single-day records for new infections.
The World Health Organization also reignited debate about China’s handling of the pandemic in its earliest days, by saying it was alerted to the coronavirus crisis by its own office in China and not by the local authorities.
Donald Trump has said that the US, the main financial contributor to WHO, will sever ties with the organisation, which he accuses of being too close to China and of having poorly managed the pandemic. The WHO denies any complacency toward China.
As worldwide cases of Covid-19 passed 11 million, and deaths to 525,000, there is an increasing division between countries that have the virus at least partially suppressed – like Australia and Spain – and those where infections are still rising fast, like the United States.
The former are trying to use targeted testing and local shutdowns to keep the virus under control, without returning to effective but economically crippling nationwide lockdowns.
The nine Melbourne tower blocks were cut off immediately, and completely, from the mid-afternoon, after authorities announced cases in two postcodes had surged. All other residents will be expected to observe lockdown from midnight.
Daniel Andrews, premier of Victoria, said the towers were singled out for stricter rules because there are recorded cases inside, shared facilities and the housing is high density. But some residents said they were intimidated by a police presence and worried about support for vulnerable and elderly residents.
In Spain, Segrià county in Catalonia has been closed off after more than 350 cases were detected in the area. It is the first time Spain has reintroduced restrictions since emergency measures began lifting on 21 June.
Movement in and out of the area, which is about a two-hour car journey west of Barcelona, will be restricted to most from midday Saturday. Officials have also recommended that residents limit their movements and social activities. Gatherings of more than 10 people have been prohibited.
The largest city in the area, Lleida, has been struggling with a surge in coronavirus cases in recent days. Health officials ordered a field hospital to be set up on Friday, after the number of infections nearly doubled from 167 to 325 in a week.
Iran became the latest country to announce it will enforce wearing of masks in enclosed public spaces, among a series of new measures to counter Covid-19, outlined by the resident, Hassan Rouhani, on Saturday.
“Employees who do not wear them (masks) should be considered absentees and sent home,” he said, adding that those infected have a “religious duty” to notify others, Rouhani said. “Keeping your infection a secret violates the rights of other people”.
The public have been reluctant to wear masks despite the worst outbreak in the region with more than 235,000 confirmed infections. The government published photos of Rouhani in a mask as part of its public relations campaign to shift opinion.
In Brazil, which has the world’s second worst outbreak, a similar law has been brought in but was watered down by the president, Jair Bolsonaro. Its provisions will not apply in shops, churches and schools.
Bolsonaro has repeatedly dismissed the seriousness of Covid-19 and the scale of Brazil’s problems, and he claimed the new law in its original form could have led to people being fined for not wearing a mask at home.
Brazil reported 1,290 more deaths and registered 42,223 new cases on Friday, with more than 1.5 million total cases, behind only the US, which has nearly 2.8 million cases and more than 129,000 deaths.
Despite the surge in cases in the US, public health leaders are being denied permission to appear on national television and speak on behalf of the federal government, according to a report by CNN
One anonymous official told the network Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a popular figure on TV in the early months of the pandemic, was thought to be too blunt about the dangers of Covid-19, or too “doom and gloom”.
Kimberly Guilfoyle, the girlfriend of Donald Trump Jr, has tested positive for the virus, US media have reported. The former Fox News presenter is a key fundraiser for the president’s re-election campaign and is the latest person in the Trump circle to become infected. She was reportedly asymptomatic.
In England, hairdressing salons and wedding venues opened for business the minute the government’s deadline passed at midnight on Friday.
Salons have been shut for months but were allowed to open from Saturday. Pubs and restaurants in England were allowed to open from 6am local time, with Boris Johnson, the UK prime minister, warning people to behave and “not to blow it”.
Sandra Jacobs had her hair cut at a salon in Camden in north London, telling reporters that it was “such a relief, I can’t tell you … My hair was everywhere. I’d been wearing hats to hide it”.