Coronavirus: Germany may introduce compulsory tests – as it happened

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26 Jul 202019.02 EDT

Summary

Jedidajah Otte

Here are the latest coronavirus developments at a glance:

• North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting on Saturday after a person suspected of having Covid-19 returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border.
• The UK government has advised against all but essential travel to mainland Spain, and confirmed that all people arriving from Spain from Sunday will have to self-isolate for two weeks.
• Florida became the US state with second-highest number of infections on Saturday, leaving it second to only California, the state with the highest population.
• Brazil registered an additional 1,211 deaths from Covid-19 on Saturday, as well as a further 51,147 confirmed infections.
• The number of people in Israel who have tested positive for coronavirus topped 60,000 on Saturday, as thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday in Jerusalem and other cities demanding prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation.
• South Africa’s trade minister Ebrahim Patel on Saturday tested positive for Covid-19, the cabinet said, the fourth minister to contract the virus in Africa’s hardest-hit country.
• The governor of Lombardy, Italy’s hardest-hit region in the pandemic, acknowledged that he is being investigated by Milan prosecutors over a lucrative contract to obtain protective medical gowns from his brother-in-law’s company, but denied any wrongdoing.
• In Yemen, where an already weak health system has been destroyed by five years of conflict and 80% of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance, the coronavirus pandemic is exacerbating what was already the world’s worst humanitarian crisis, a charity has warned.
• Covid-19 hospitalisations in New York are at the lowest level since the pandemic began, as the state reported 10 further coronavirus deaths during the past 24 hours.

That’s all from me for today, thanks a lot for tuning in. My colleagues in Australia will be taking over shortly.

A survey released Saturday showed governments are fast losing support for their handling of the coronavirus pandemic, as health officials recorded a surge of more than 280,000 new cases globally two days in a row.

Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, widely criticised for his handling of the crisis, appeared to credit an unproven treatment for his recovery from the virus.

And in the streets of Jerusalem and other cities, thousands called for Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to resign, in part for his management of the coronavirus crisis.

There were more than 280,000 new cases recorded globally on both Thursday and Friday, the highest daily rises since the virus emerged in China late last year, according to an AFP count based on official sources, an alarming uptick in the spread of the virus.

Nearly a third of the world’s 15.8 million infections have been registered since 1 July, while the total death toll nears 640,000.

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The World Health Organization said more than a million cases had been recorded in each of the last five weeks, “with over 280,000 being reported on July 24 alone”.

“While no country is unaffected, this rise is driven by high transmission in large and populous countries in the Americas and South Asia,” it said in a statement on Saturday.

Brazil and India had recently reported their highest daily increases, it added, while the figures remained worryingly high in the United States and South Africa - where Trade Minister Ebrahim Patel tested positive for the virus Saturday.

The US, still the hardest-hit nation, on Friday reported its second straight day of more than 70,000 new cases and over 1,000 deaths as the virus surges in the south and west.

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Florida overtook New York on Saturday to become the US state with the second-highest number of coronavirus infections, the Financial Times reports.

An additional 12,199 confirmed cases, the state’s sixth-biggest one-day jump, took Florida’s overall tally to 414,511.

That is about 3,300 more than New York and leaves it second only to California in terms of total infections.

California, the Unites States’ most populous state, reported that a further 10,066 people tested positive over the past day, taking its total since the beginning of the pandemic to 445,400.

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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un convened an emergency politburo meeting after a person suspected of having Covid-19 returned from South Korea after illegally crossing the border this month, state media said on Sunday.

Kim declared a state of emergency and imposed a lockdown on the border city of Kaesong, calling it a “critical situation in which the vicious virus could be said to have entered the country,” state news agency KCNA reported.

If confirmed, it would be the first case officially acknowledged by North Korean authorities, who have so far said the country has no confirmed cases of the new coronavirus.

According to KCNA, a person who defected to South Korea three years ago returned across the fortified border that divides the two Koreas with symptoms that suggested Covid-19.

“An emergency event happened in Kaesong City where a runaway who went to the south three years ago, a person who is suspected to have been infected with the vicious virus returned on 19 July after illegally crossing the demarcation line,” KCNA said.

KCNA did not specifically mention whether the individual had been tested, but said an “uncertain result was made from several medical check-ups of the secretion of that person’s upper respiratory organ and blood,” prompting officials to quarantine the person and investigate anyone he may have been in contact with.

North Korea has received thousands of coronavirus testing kits from Russia and other countries, and imposed strict border closures.

Thousands of people in North Korea were quarantined, but restrictions had recently eased.

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Brazil registered an additional 1,211 deaths attributable to the coronavirus over the last 24 hours and another 51,147 confirmed cases, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The South American nation has now registered 86,449 deaths and 2,394,513 total confirmed cases, Reuters reports.

The number of confirmed deaths from Covid-19 in the US state of Texas rose to 4,885 on Saturday, up 168 from Friday’s tally of 4,717.

The state health department said that coronavirus hospitalisations fell to 9,827 in total from 10,036 on the previous day.

The overall number of confirmed infections in Texas rose by 8,112 on Saturday.

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Airlines EasyJet and British Airways told customers on Saturday they did not plan to cancel flights over the coming days, after Britain’s government advised against all non-essential travel to mainland Spain due to a spike in new coronavirus infections.

Earlier on Saturday TUI, Europe’s largest tour operator, said it was cancelling all holiday departures scheduled for Sunday.

“Our flights are currently expected to operate normally,” British Airways told one customer on Twitter.

An EasyJet customer service representative told another customer: “We plan to operate our full schedule in the coming days,” Reuters reports.

Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II has ticked off another first during lockdown: the virtual unveiling of a new portrait.

Despite seeing the artwork of herself via videocall, it was clear she has not lost her eagle eye.

The Queen joked that a tea cup featured in the painting had no tea in it, the artist revealed, as she paid tribute to her “luminous” sitter.

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Miriam Escofet painted the portrait, which was commissioned by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) as a “lasting tribute to Her Majesty’s service” to diplomacy.

The Queen saw the painting for the first time via her computer screen, before speaking to members of FCO staff about their work around the world during the coronavirus crisis.

“She seemed to react very positively to it. She was smiling, asking how long it took and if I had any more projects on the go after this,” Escofet told PA.

The painting took seven months to complete, with the final stages finished in lockdown.

Escofet had two sittings with the Queen - one at Windsor where she spent around half-an-hour photographing the monarch and the second at Buckingham Palace to focus on her facial expressions.

Britain’s abruptly announced reintroduction of a two-week quarantine for all travellers arriving from Spain after a surge of coronavirus cases is set to have a dramatic impact on Spain’s tourism sector, which had just started to attempt a recovery after months of lockdown.

The quarantine requirement was due to take effect from midnight (2300 GMT on Saturday), making it impossible for travellers to avoid it by rushing home.

Tour operator TUI said it was “incredibly disappointed” that the British government did not give more notice of this announcement, and said that all its customers currently in Spain would return on their intended flight home.

TUI said it had cancelled all flights due to depart to mainland Spain and the canary islands on Sunday 26 July, according to Reuters.

The sudden British move followed steps this week by other European countries.

On Friday Norway said it would re-impose a 10-day quarantine requirement for people arriving from Spain from Saturday, while France advised people not to travel to Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia.

But the total collapse of tourism from Britain would have far more impact.

Britain accounted for more than 20% of the foreign visitors to Spain last year, the largest group by nationality.

Tourism normally accounts for some 12% of Spain’s economy.

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The British transport secretary Grant Shapps is reportedly on holiday in Spain, which, unless he returns to the UK in the next one and a half hours, might make him subject to the government’s newly imposed quarantine rules for all travellers returning from Spain.

However, it is unclear whether the new quarantine rules will apply to government ministers, as a government website states that people “undertaking essential policing or essential government work outside of the UK” will not necessarily have to self-isolate.

Shapps last week became the first senior UK politician to break ranks and declare he was taking a summer holiday abroad this year.

The transport secretary said he and his wife, Belinda, had decided to take advantage of the relaxation of Foreign Office guidance on non-essential overseas travel.

“My wife looked at all of these new changes that were made and has now booked a break for the first time for a couple of years,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on 18 July.

South Africa’s trade minister Ebrahim Patel on Saturday tested positive for Covid-19, the cabinet said, the fourth minister to contract the virus in Africa’s hardest-hit country.

Cabinet spokeswoman Phumla Williams said in a statement that Patel, 58, received his results on Saturday.

“Minister Patel is in good spirits and is in self-quarantine, and will continue to work from home,” Williams said, according to AFP.

“Those that have been in contact with the Minister are also in self-isolation and have been encouraged to get tested,” she added.

Four ministers and several MPs have so far contracted coronavirus in South Africa, which has the highest numbers of diagnosed infections on the continent and ranks fifth in the world after the United States, Brazil, India and Russia.

On Monday, both Labour minister Thulas Nxesi, 61, and mineral resources minister Gwede Mantashe, 65, were separately admitted to hospital with the virus.

The fourth is defence minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who has since recovered.

To date South Africa has recorded 434,200 cases of coronavirus, at least 6,655 of whom have died.

Thousands of Israelis protested on Saturday in Jerusalem and other cities including Tel Aviv, demanding prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s resignation over his government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic.

In Jerusalem they rallied outside Netanyahu’s residence holding up signs accusing him of corruption, a reference to the premier’s indictment in January for bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three cases, AFP reports.

He denies all the charges.

“We are fed up with the corrupt,” some signs read, alongside others reading “Where are the morals? Where are the values?”

Protesters also slammed a law passed this week that gives the government special powers to fight the spread of the virus until the end of 2021.

Protests against economic fallout from the pandemic have spread across the country in recent weeks. In some cases police sprayed demonstrators with water cannons, injuring some.

Israel won praise for its initial response to the Covid-19 outbreak, but the government has come under criticism amid a resurgence in cases after restrictions were lifted starting in late April.

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My colleagues Michael Savage and David Connett have written up a report about the new quarantine rule for arrivals from Spain on UK soil.