New Covid restrictions in north-east England – as it happened

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As Australia wakes up, here are some of the key developments from the last few hours.

• Tighter restrictions are set to be imposed on large parts of the north-east of England from Friday as Covid-19 cases continue to rise. The restrictions - which will reportedly apply to Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead, County Durham and Sunderland - are expected to include a 10pm curfew on pubs, restaurants and other licensed premises, and a ban on different households mixing, whether indoors or outdoors. A full announcement is expected on Thursday morning. Our story is here.
• Latin America is opening up too early and the pandemic still requires major interventions, the WHO’s regional director Carissa Etienne warned. With coronavirus cases and deaths continuing to climb in the region, Etienne said resuming normal social and public life and reopening to tourism can lead to major setbacks, as has happened in the Caribbean. “We must be clear that opening up too early gives this virus more room to spread and puts our populations at greater risk. Look no further than Europe,” she said.
• The average age of people infected with Covid-19 is coming down, according to a WHO expert. Dr Maria Van Kerkhove told a Q&A that incidences of hospitalisation among those aged 15 to 49 years are increasing.
• France reported it third-highest number of daily additional infections on record. Health authorities reported new 9,784 confirmed cases and 46 more deaths.
• Hungary expects a second wave of the pandemic to peak in December or January, its prime minister Viktor Orbán said. The country will maintain border closures and make the wearing of face masks mandatory in cinemas, theatres and social institutions.
• For the second successive day, the Netherlands recorded its worst increase in the number of new infections. The country saw 1,542 more on Wednesday after an increase of 1,379 on the previous day.
• The Madrid region is to introduce targeted lockdowns and other restrictions on movement. The measures will come into effect in one of the worst-hit areas of Spain on Friday.
• The US government plans to begin distributing a vaccine within one day of any regulatory authorisation. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will decide how initial, limited vaccine doses will be allocated and distributed.
• India’s coronavirus cases passed 5 million, testing the country’s feeble health care system in tens of thousands of impoverished towns and villages. The health ministry reported 90,123 new cases in the past 24 hours, raising the nation’s confirmed total to 5,020,359, about 0.35% of its nearly 1.4 billion population. It said 1,290 more people died in the past 24 hours, for a total of 82,066. India’s total coronavirus caseload is closing in on the US’s highest tally of more than 6.6 million cases and expected to surpass it within weeks.
• US president Donald Trump claimed Covid-19 would go away without a vaccine. This would happen because of “herd mentality”, he said in an ABC town hall. It is unclear whether he meant herd immunity, as he repeated the phrase several times. “It would go away without the vaccine, George,” he said speaking to ABC journalist George Stephanopoulos. “With time it goes away. And you’ll develop like a herd mentality. It’s going to be herd developed, and that’s going to happen. That will all happen.”
  
• New Zealand reported a second consecutive day of no new community cases of Covid-19.
• Half the world’s schoolchildren are still unable to attend classrooms due to the pandemic. Around 872 million – more than half of whom have not been able to study remotely – are not allowed to attend school in person, Unicef executive director Henrietta Fore said.
• Nearly a fifth of South Africans may have contracted coronavirus, the country’s health minister has said. South Africa has recorded 650,749 cases, but the actual number of infections could be “about 12 million”, Zweli Mkhize said.

The IMF has approved the release of another $1bn in lending for Angola as its economy struggles with the Covid-19 downturn and global drop in crude oil prices, AFP reports.

The Washington-based crisis lender also increased by $765m the size of the three-year aid programme for the southern African nation to help it deal with the pandemic’s impact on the economy, the IMF said in a statement.

Facing high debt levels and inflation, Angola, one of the largest producers of crude in Africa, reached an agreement with the IMF in December 2018 on a $3.7bn Extended Fund Facility. The latest disbursement brings to $2.5bn the total released.

Angola has been hard hit by slumping oil prices since the coronavirus pandemic struck, caused by a global slowdown in demand and a price war between major producers. The IMF in July projected that Angola would see its GDP shrink by 4% this year, its fifth straight year of economic contraction.

IMF deputy managing director Antoinette Sayeh said in a statement:

The Angolan authorities remain committed to sound policies under the IMF-supported program despite a deteriorated external environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic, including negative impacts on public health, social protection, the budget and public debt.

The authorities adopted a conservative supplementary budget for 2020, taking measures to increase non-oil revenue, and reining in non-essential expenditure. Despite the crisis, fiscal consolidation will continue, while creating space for adequate spending on health and social safety nets.

Chile’s health minister has urged Chileans to celebrate the country’s independence day holiday on Friday “prudently” amid fears that a special permit allowing people to hold and attend family gatherings could result in a surge in coronavirus cases.

The day is normally marked by exuberant communal fairs to which Chileans flock in large numbers to watch horseback displays and traditional dancing, while consuming large quantities of barbecued beef, stuffed empanada pastries, and alcohol.

This year, as Chile seeks to maintain an upper hand over the virus, the authorities have cancelled the fairs.

But Chileans can apply for a special “party at home” permit from police that allows a household to host an additional five people for up to six hours. The permit will only be granted to people in communities out of full lockdown.

The health minister Enrique Paris said Chileans had earned some enjoyment after months of lockdown but urged them not to throw away the gains against the coronavirus.

On Wednesday, Chile recorded the lowest number of deaths in 90 days. Overall, it has had over 12,000 Covid-19 deaths, according to a Reuters tally.

Let’s be careful and responsible, let’s comply with the rules, let’s beat the virus. Just as our forefathers won freedom for Chile and gave us that freedom with effort and sacrifice, hopefully our citizens today will also take up that baton.

Paula Daza, the health ministry undersecretary, stressed people should continue to wear masks and avoid sharing utensils during the festivities.

It had been a mistake for the government not to discuss how to handle the holiday more broadly with its scientific advisory group, said Izkia Siches, the president of Chile’s College of Medics. The result might have been more “cautious,” she said.

This is from Jessica Elgot, the Guardian’s deputy political editor.

And here is Kevan Jones, the Labour MP for North Durham, telling Sky News that “testing in the North East is a complete shambles”.

I have constituents being sent hundreds of miles for tests. We have local test centres which have got capacity that aren’t being used because they’re being told they can’t handle the number of results.

And Nadine Dorries [UK health minister] this afternoon gave us no confidence that the government is going to put a proper test-and-trace system in. That needs to be given to local authorities and directors of public health, which should have been done from the start instead of trying to micromanage the system nationally with private companies - which is just not working.

And here is our story from my colleagues Josh Halliday and Jessica Elgot.

Here is the UK communities secretary Robert Jenrick confirming reports that further restrictions will be imposed on parts of the north-east of England.

He said the measures will come into play “from midnight on Thursday evening” and a full announcement will be made tomorrow.

The North East appears set to become the latest area in England to come under greater restrictions amid growing concern over rising Covid-19 infections.

Writing on Twitter, the leader of Newcastle city council Nick Forbes said “additional, temporary” measures are being planned to avoid another full lockdown in the region.

Reports suggest 22 MPs were briefed by the UK health minister Nadine Dorries earlier on Wednesday. Forbes said he expected the UK health and social care secretary Matt Hancock to make an announcement on Thursday morning.

Chronicle Live reported that measures are expected to include a 10pm curfew on pubs, restaurants and other licensed premises, and that people will be banned from socialising with anyone outside their own household, whether indoors or outdoors.

It also reported care home visits will be restricted to essential visitors, and people will be advised to avoid public transport at peak times except for essential journeys, and to avoid car-shares.

Chronicle Live understands the plan is for measures to come into force just after midnight on Friday.

The restrictions will reportedly apply to Newcastle, Northumberland, North Tyneside, South Tyneside, Gateshead, County Durham and Sunderland - which have all seen rises in cases, according to the latest weekly figures.

The most recent numbers show Newcastle has recorded a sharp increase in its weekly rate, up from 51.2 to 64.1, with 194 new cases in the seven days to 13 September.

It comes after local measures in the likes of Greater Manchester and Birmingham have been put in place in an effort to stem rising infection rates.

The United States could have a capacity of 3m tests per day this month, and scale as high as 135m a month by October, a top health official has told a US Congress panel.

Half of the three million tests would be rapid point-of-care tests, said Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the US Department of Health and Human Services.

Latin America has started to resume normal social and public life at a time when the Covid-19 pandemic still requires major control interventions, World Health Organization regional director Carissa Etienne said on Wednesday.

Coronavirus cases in Colombia’s border area with Venezuela have increased ten-fold in the last two weeks, Etienne said in a virtual briefing from Washington with other Pan American Health Organization directors.

Death rates are climbing in parts of Mexico, and similar trends are seen in Ecuador, Costa Rica and Bolivia, with similar patterns also emerging in areas of Argentina, she warned.

Although the entire world is racing to develop new tools to prevent and cure Covid-19, a safe and effective vaccine that can be manufactured and delivered at scale is not around the corner.

We must be clear that opening up too early gives this virus more room to spread and puts our populations at greater risk. Look no further than Europe.

Etienne said governments must monitor travel very carefully because reopening to tourism can lead to setbacks. That has happened in the Caribbean, where several countries that had virtually no cases have experienced spikes as tourism resumed.

According to a Reuters tally, Latin America has recorded around 8.4 million coronavirus cases, and over 314,000 deaths, both figures being the highest of any region.

Good evening from London! I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the Covid-19 pandemic for the next few hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tip to share.

Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_