Brazil cases near 2m – as it happened

We’ve launched a new global coronavirus blog at the link below – head there for the latest:

Boys have fallen further behind girls at reading regularly and enjoying it during the UK lockdown, a study suggests.

The gender gap in the numbers of children who say they take pleasure in reading and who read daily appears to have widened, prompting fears that boys could be at risk of losing out as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Greater access to audiobooks at school and home may help re-engage boys with literacy, the report from the National Literacy Trust (NLT) and Puffin says, as findings suggest these are more popular with boys.

Fiona Evans, the director of schools programmes at the NLT, called for more schools to introduce “audio libraries”, and for fathers and grandfathers to be role models to encourage more reading among boys.

NBC news is reporting that the White House is “seeking to discredit Dr. Anthony Fauci,” as Trump struggles to gain control over the coronavirus pandemic:

In a remarkable broadside by the Trump administration against one of its own, a White House official said Sunday that “several White House officials are concerned about the number of times Dr. Fauci has been wrong on things.” The official gave NBC News a list of nearly a dozen past comments by Fauci that the official said had ultimately proven erroneous.

Among them: Fauci’s comments in January that the coronavirus was “not a major threat” and his guidance in March that “people should not be walking around with masks.”

It was a move more characteristic of a political campaign furtively disseminating opposition research about an opponent than of a White House struggling to contain a pandemic that has killed more than 135,000 people, according to an NBC News tally.

Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now. I’ll be bringing you the latest pandemic news from around the world for the next few hours.

As always, it would be good to hear from you – send news, tips, suggestions, extravagant gifts on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.

12 Jul 202018.05 EDT

Summary

Jedidajah Otte

Here the latest key developments at a glance:

• The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a record increase in global coronavirus cases on Sunday, with the total rising by 230,370 in 24 hours. The biggest increases were recorded in the United States, Brazil, India and South Africa.
• A new report by Oxfam warns that the hunger crisis worsened by the pandemic could potentially kill more people each day than the infection itself, which has claimed more than half a million lives so far.
• The US state of Florida has registered 15,300 new infections on Sunday, the biggest daily increase in recorded coronavirus cases in the state since the beginning of the pandemic.
  
• Current hospitalisations in the US state of Texas rose by 327 to a new high of 10,410, a record high for the 14th day in a row.
• South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, has reinstated a ban on the sale of alcohol to reduce the volume of trauma patients so that hospitals have more beds to treat Covid-19 patients.
• The Palestinian Authority on Sunday imposed a night-time and weekend curfew on the occupied West Bank for the coming 14 days to try to rein in rising coronavirus numbers.
• Mexico’s death toll from the coronavirus pandemic is poised to overtake Italy’s and shoot above 35,000 on Sunday.
• The government of Spain’s Catalonia region on Sunday ordered residents in and around the north-eastern city of Lleida to go back into home confinement as cases of coronavirus rose.
• Jordan’s King Abdullah II said Sunday that his country had brought coronavirus under control and that it was time to focus on restarting the economy. Prime minister
  Omar al-Razzaz promised on Sunday to deepen a crackdown on the country’s rampant tax evasion.
• Nightclubs and discos in Bulgaria will be allowed to reopen, just three days after all indoor bars were ordered to shut and despite a continuing rise in coronavirus cases in the country.
• Lebanon has recorded a new infection high, as the health ministry said a total of 166 new cases had been confirmed in the last 24 hours.

That’s all from me, my colleague Helen Sullivan is going to take over now.

Brazil, the country second-worst affected by coronavirus after the United States, registered 631 new deaths on Sunday, with a new total of 1,864,681 confirmed cases, according to the health ministry.

Brazil now has an official total of 72,100 deaths, the ministry said.

The numbers of deaths and cases are usually lower on the weekend because of patchy or delayed reporting.

Experts say the true totals are likely far higher due to a lack of testing.

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A French expert warned on Sunday that there was little chance of a 100-percent effective coronavirus vaccine by 2021, and urged people to take social distancing measures more seriously.

“A vaccine is several years in development,” said epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet, a member of the team of scientists advising the French government on the crisis, speaking on BFMTV television.

“Of course, there is an unprecedented effort to develop a vaccine, but I would be very surprised if we had that was effective in 2021,” he added.

While we would probably have one that worked partially, we were very far from the end of the crisis, he said.

That being the case, “we have to live with this virus” he said.

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“This summer, let’s respect physical distance, at least,” he said, stressing that large gatherings were the main threat.

On Saturday, a DJ’s set on a beach in the Mediterranean resort of Nice in southern France drew thousands of people together, sparking a furious reaction on social media, AFP reports.

Fontanet said the main risks for the appearance of new virus clusters were in confined spaces, such as on cruise ships, warships, sports halls, discos, slaughterhouses, accommodation housing migrant workers and places of worship.

On Wednesday, the French government said it was preparing for a second wave of Covid-19, but rather than imposing another nationwide lockdown, they would use “targeted” measures such as stay-at-home orders or business closures.

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Coronavirus infections in Texas rose by 8,196 to 258,658 in total on Sunday, the state health department said.

The US state recorded a further 80 deaths from Covid-19, bringing the overall death toll in Texas to 3,192.

Current hospitalisations in Texas rose by 327 to a new high of 10,410, a record high for the 14th day in a row.

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Texas governor Greg Abbott announced on Sunday that the US Department for Health and Human Services had extended federal support for community based testing sites in the cities of Dallas and Houston until the end of the month.

A new report by Oxfam warns that the hunger crisis worsened by the pandemic could potentially kill more people each day than the infection itself, which has claimed more than half a million lives so far.

An estimated 12,000 people per day could die from hunger linked to Covid-19 by the end of the year, Oxfam said.

By comparison, data from Johns Hopkins University shows that the pandemic’s deadliest day so far was 17 April, when 8,890 deaths were recorded, CNN reports.

“The pandemic is the final straw for millions of people already struggling with the impacts of conflict, climate change, inequality and a broken food system that has impoverished millions of food producers and workers,” Oxfam’s interim executive director Chema Vera said in a release.

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Among the issues that have left many unable to put food on the table are lost income caused by unemployment or a reduction in remittance payments, the lack of social support for those who work in the informal economy, and disruptions to the supply chain and hurdles faced by producers.

Also contributing to the crisis are the travel restrictions related to lockdowns, which impact not just workers and farmers, but also the delivery of humanitarian aid.

In its briefing, Oxfam calls out food and beverage industry titans like Coca-Cola, Unilever, General Mills among others.

”Meanwhile, those at the top are continuing to make a profit: eight of the biggest food and drink companies paid out over $18 billion to shareholders since January even as the pandemic was spreading across the globe ― ten times more than the UN says is needed to stop people going hungry,” the release reads.

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Jordan’s prime minister Omar al-Razzaz promised on Sunday to deepen a crackdown on tax evasion that officials say has deprived the country’s cash-strapped economy of billions of dollars’ revenue in recent years.

The government has gone after senior businessmen and former politicians suspected of tax dodging, money laundering and customs evasion in a weeks-long campaign that has gained greater urgency with the hit to state finances from the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Protecting public money and fighting corruption is a national duty,” Razzaz said in his weekly television address to the nation.

Tax authorities have raided around 650 companies so far, according to officials who say this is the biggest campaign to combat tax evasion in decades.

The government said it had frozen the assets of dozens of companies and businessmen on suspected tax evasion charges.

It added that it would track offshore havens where wealthy Jordanians have long parked cash to avoid taxes.

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Some critics have accused the government of using the campaign to carry out a witch hunt against its political enemies, including some of Jordan’s leading business figures, including former ministers and senior politicians.

Officials deny that, saying the goal is to ensure justice and that no one is above the law.

The government has been using its wider powers under a state of emergency since March to give prosecutors and the main anti-corruption agency greater powers, and stiffen penalties.

A two-month coronavirus lockdown has crippled Jordanian businesses and slashed state revenues by tens of millions of dollars, leading to the sharpest economic contraction in two decades.

The government expects the economy to shrink by 3.5% this year, a far cry from an International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimate of 2% growth before the pandemic.

A woman who spent three weeks at AS Green and Co farm in Herefordshire, England, the farm where at least 73 workers have tested positive for coronavirus, has spoken about her ordeal.

Here my colleague Matthew Weaver’s story.

A staff member involved in the preparation of the first executions of US federal prisoners in 17 years has tested positive for coronavirus, the Bureau of Prisons said on Sunday.

In a court filing, the bureau said the employee based at the justice department’s execution chamber in Terre Haute, Indiana, attended a meeting with outside law enforcement in preparation for the scheduled executions and another meeting on how to handle any demonstrators. He did not come into contact with members of the execution protocol team, the bureau said.

The news comes two days after a US federal judge blocked the first execution, due to be carried out on Monday, after some of the victims’ relatives sued, saying they feared that attending could expose them to Covid-19.

Judge Jane Magnus-Stinson ordered the justice department to delay the execution of Daniel Lewis Lee until it could show it was upholding the right of victims’ relatives to attend without risking their health. The justice department said it would appeal, Reuters reports.

Another prisons employee had previously tested positive for the virus, and has since recovered.

Lee’s scheduled death by lethal injection is one of four executions that had been scheduled for July and August. All four men were convicted of killing children.

Wesley Purkey’s execution was scheduled for Wednesday, but a federal appeals court issued a temporary stay this month and it was not clear whether it would proceed. Dustin Honken’s is set for Friday.