Venezuelan capital to go into lockdown – as it happened

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

Back to New Zealand now:

Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian from Wellington:

More from Jacinda Ardern’s speech laying out her plans for the possibility that Covid-19 re-emerges domestically in New Zealand.

“When we closed our borders on the 19th of March there were 240,000 cases in the world in total,” she is telling reporters at a news conference in Wellington. “It’s fifty times worse than that now.

“We see this growth in cases around the world reflected in the steady stream of New Zealanders returning from overseas, some of whom are bringing the virus back with them, which we continue to contain at our borders.

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New Zealanders had a legal right to return to the country, she added, but the quarantine hotels where they are spending two weeks of mandatory isolation provided the greatest risk for the spread of the virus in the wider community.

“Experts tell us that even with the best precautions possible, the chances of the virus passing from a surface, or contact with someone who is a carrier are high,” she said. “We must prepare now for that eventuality and have a plan at the ready in the event that it does.”

“No system is 100% fool proof and around the world we are seeing even the most rigorous measures being tested by the virus.”

All of New Zealand’s current cases are among returning travelers in quarantine, with the last case outside of the border hotels recovered in early June. There have been fewer than 1,200 confirmed cases of the virus and 22 deaths.

US president Donald Trump is delivering a prepared campaign speech at the White House Rose Garden currently. My colleagues on the US blog are covering that live – and it is mostly an attack on Joe Biden and the Democrats – but here is a coronavirus-related fact check by my colleague Maanvi Singh:

Trump: “Think of this: If we didn’t do testing — instead of testing over 40 million people, if we did half the testing we’d have half the cases.”

Fact: This is an obvious one, but testing fewer Americans doesn’t mean that we’d have fewer coronavirus cases, we’d just be reporting fewer of them. People with the infection who aren’t able to get tested could unknowingly spread the infection to others, exacerbating the crisis.

Charlotte Graham-McLay reports for the Guardian from Wellington:

After eliminating community transmission of Covid-19 in June, New Zealand’s government has had the enviable chance to plan for the possibility of a fresh virus outbreak.

Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister, is making a speech in Wellington during which she is outlining the country’s plan in case the coronavirus spreads beyond the 25 known cases currently contained at quarantine facilities among travellers returning to New Zealand.

“We only need to look to Victoria, New South Wales, Hong Kong, Singapore and Korea to see examples of other places that like us had the virus under control at a point in time only to see it emerge again,” Ardern said.

“This does not mean anyone has failed...it means perfection in the response to a virus, and a pandemic, is just not possible.”

She added that New Zealand’s strategy to quash the virus would remain one of elimination. Her government would impose neighbourhood, city, regional, or national lockdowns based on the severity and spread of future cases, she said.

Hi, Helen Sullivan joining you now. I’ll be bringing you the latest for the next few hours – get in touch on Twitter or email with questions, comments, tips and news from your part of the world.

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

Brazil has suffered 1,300 more deaths and recorded 41,857 new cases in 24 hours, the country’s Health Ministry has said, taking the respective totals to 74,133 and 1,926,824.

In the US, the Democrats’ presidential nominee Joe Biden has urged the president Donald Trump to listen to his public health experts as the country’s caseload continues to surge.

Biden welcomed Trump’s decision to finally wear a mask in public, but added that it was “not enough”.

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The rising number of cases in the US could be under control within four to eight weeks if everyone wore a mask, the director of the CDC has said.

Robert Redfield was speaking in an online interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association, or JAMA, a medical publication. He also said wearing a mask was a public health issue and that he was “sad” to see it become politicised.

I am glad to see the president and vice president wear a mask. Clearly, in their situation they could easily justify they don’t need to ... but we need for them to set the example.

The CDC said in a publication released on Tuesday that most Americans wore cloth face-coverings after the government recommended their use in April.

Venezuela’s capital Caracas will go into a strict lockdown on Wednesday in a bid to slow its outbreak, Joe Parkin Daniels writes. The neighbouring state, Miranda, will also be locked down.

The country’s vice president Delcy Rodríguez said the measures were taken to “protect the health of the people”.

Much of Venezuela has been shut down since its first case was reported in early March. Air travel has been suspended until 12 August. It has confirmed 9,707 cases and 93 deaths. However, observers worry that the infamously opaque government of Nicolás Maduro is underreporting the numbers.

Few countries are as ill-prepared to deal with the pandemic as Venezuela, which remains mired in economic turmoil despite boasting the world’s largest proven oil reserves.

Hyperinflation is rampant, with shortages in food and medicines a daily reality. Many homes across the country go for days without power or water. The US-led coalition of 50 countries does not formally recognise Maduro’s presidency, instead backing opposition leader Juan Guaidó.

Here’s a summary of the latest news:

• Cities and states around the world returned to tighter coronavirus restrictions to battle recurring outbreaks, including India’s IT hub Bangalore which was set to go into a new week-long lockdown on Tuesday as the number of coronavirus cases surged.
• In France masks will become mandatory in all enclosed public spaces within the next few weeks, President Emmanuel Macron has said in a major Bastille Day interview. This comes as a a French study revealed the case of a baby boy infected with coronavirus in the womb This is believed to be first such confirmed case but doctors say infant has made good recovery.
• 6,000 new coronavirus cases in Russia. Russia has reported 6,248 new cases on Tuesday, and 175 deaths in the last 24 hours. That means the confirmed national tally is 739,947, the fourth highest in the world, and the official death toll is 11,614. But the number of cases in Moscow has dropped in recent weeks, and from yesterday rules requiring residents to wear masks outside were relaxed.
• EU drops Serbia and Montenegro from safe list. The European Union has decided to drop Serbia and Montenegro from its safe list of countries from which non-essential travel is allowed, and did not even discuss including the United States given its sharp rise in coronavirus cases, EU officials have said.
• The White House dropped plans that would have forced some international students out of the US if the pandemic pushed their coursework online. The Trump administration came to a settlement with Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology after they sued over the proposed measures.

Most people in the US wore cloth face-coverings after Washington recommended it in April, an official study has suggested.

US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) researchers analysed data from more than 800 adults in two internet surveys in April and May who reported going outdoors in the past week.

Data published in CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report showed that, within days of the first national recommendation, 61.9% people reported using cloth face-coverings when they left home. This number rose to 76.4% a month later.

While more research is needed to understand why some people still do not wear cloth masks, the CDC said public health authorities should continue communicating the importance of covering the mouth and nose.

A Republican member of congress has tested positive, his office has said. Morgan Griffith is the 10th US Representative whose infection has either been confirmed or presumed by doctors, Reuters reports. The 62-year-old has been in self-imposed isolation since being tested. His office said:

Although he does not currently have significant symptoms, he will continue to self-isolate as he performs his duties.

A member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Griffith has participated in hearings and news conferences on Capitol Hill, including an outdoor news conference last week to push for reopening US schools.

Last month, the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on committee chairmen to require members to wear masks during proceedings after Republican lawmakers defied public health recommendations.

Cases have recently increased in areas of Virginia outside the Washington suburbs. Griffith represents the state’s ninth congressional district in the southwest, along the state’s borders with West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.

The White House has backtracked on plans that would have forced some international students to leave the US if all their coursework was moved online because of the pandemic.

The Trump administration made the dramatic reversal after a US district judge said Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who sued over the proposed measures, had come to a settlement with Washington that would render them moot.

The US has suffered another 351 and registered 58,858 new cases, Washington’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said, taking the respective official totals to 135,235 and 3,355,457.

Here are the key global developments in the coronavirus pandemic from the last few hours:

• Cities and states around the world returned to tighter coronavirus restrictions to battle recurring outbreaks, including India’s IT hub Bangalore which was set to go into a new week-long lockdown on Tuesday as the number of coronavirus cases surged.
• In France masks will become mandatory in all enclosed public spaces within the next few weeks, President Emmanuel Macron has said in a major Bastille Day interview. This comes as a a French study revealed the case of a baby boy infected with coronavirus in the womb This is believed to be first such confirmed case but doctors say infant has made good recovery.
• 6,000 new coronavirus cases in Russia. Russia has reported 6,248 new cases on Tuesday, and 175 deaths in the last 24 hours. That means the confirmed national tally is 739,947, the fourth highest in the world, and the official death toll is 11,614. But the number of cases in Moscow has dropped in recent weeks, and from yesterday rules requiring residents to wear masks outside were relaxed.
• EU drops Serbia and Montenegro from safe list. The European Union has decided to drop Serbia and Montenegro from its safe list of countries from which non-essential travel is allowed, and did not even discuss including the United States given its sharp rise in coronavirus cases, EU officials have said.

Daily new cases in Turkey dropped to fewer than 1,000 for the first time since 11 June, the country’s health minister Fahrettin Koca has said.

There were 992 cases identified in the latest count. Koca said the total number now stood at 214,993, while the death toll rose by 20 on Tuesday to 5,402. Daily cases hit a low of 786 on 2 June, but more than doubled to 1,592 two weeks later after Ankara eased lockdown measures.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is working to ensure vulnerable Latin American nations receive a “subsidised” vaccine at an “affordable” price once it is available, its regional director for the Americas Carissa Etienne has said.

The Latin America region has become the latest pandemic epicentre, with deaths in the region on Monday surpassing the North American death toll for the first time since the start of the outbreak, Reuters reports.

Many Latin American nations are relatively poor, with healthcare systems struggling to cope with the region’s 3.4 million confirmed cases and 146,000 deaths according to the news agency’s data.

In a virtual briefing, Etienne said Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), WHO’s regional office based in Washington, was to working to “ensure the most vulnerable countries in the region receive the Covid-19 vaccine on a subsidised basis and at an affordable price”.

The global race for a vaccine and treatments has turned into a battle between the world’s wealthiest nations, with rich countries buying up limited drug stocks or procuring future supplies of the most promising potential vaccines.

While the vaccine may be some way off, Latin American nations with small budgets will struggle to compete, experts said.

“What good is a vaccine if people don’t have access to it?” Etienne said.

Singapore’s economy shrank more than 40% in the second quarter of this year as the pandemic plunged the Southeast Asian financial hub into recession for the first time in more than a decade, according to a report of official data by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

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The 41.2% quarter-on-quarter drop was the worst ever recorded in the city-state, which is considered a barometer for the health of global trade.

It marked the second consecutive quarter of contraction, meaning the city state has entered a recession for the first time since 2009, when it was battered by the global financial crisis.