WHO warns of 'alarming' transmission across Europe – as it happened

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As Australia wakes up, here are the key developments from the last few hours;

• Lancashire looks set to be the latest area of England to be placed under tighter local restrictions in a bid to stem the rise in coronavirus infections. Reported by Lancashire Live, the restrictions will ban households from mixing in any setting, whether indoors or outdoors, and people will be advised to only use public transport if essential. The rules will be imposed across the entire boroughs of Preston, Lancaster, Wyre, Fylde, Chorley, South Ribble, West Lancashire, Ribble Valley, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, and Rossendale - and, for reasons that remain unclear, will exclude certain parts of Blackpool. Reports suggest an announcement will take place on Friday morning.
• France saw a new record of more than 10,000 daily cases and identified Lyon and Nice as virus “red zones”. The health ministry registered 10,593 new confirmed coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, setting a new daily record and pushing the cumulative number to 415,481. In Lyon and Nice, it was identified that additional measures would be needed to control the spread of Covid-19. Later Reuters reported the French government would not be joining WHO’s international vaccine programme, a blow to the UN body’s effort to discourage “vaccine nationalism”.
  
• Canada could lose its ability to manage the coronavirus pandemic owing to a worrying recent surge in Covid-19 cases, the country’s top medical officer has said. The warning from the chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, is the clearest indication yet of how worried authorities in the country are about the potential for the outbreak to spiral out of control.
• Ontario announced new restrictions and steep fines amid a surge of Covid-19 infections that prompted concerns (above) that the country is losing control of the virus. Canada’s most populous province announced plans to limit the size of gatherings, reversing course on previous steps to reopen the province’s economy. The new rules reduce the size of indoor gatherings to 10, down from 50, and outdoor gatherings to 25, down from 100. A C$10,000 fine is also being implemented for organisers of “illegal” gatherings.
• Facebook said it would no longer show health groups in its recommendations to ensure users get health information from authoritative sources. It said the move reflected its view that such sources of information were “crucial”.
• In the US, New York City once again delayed the return of most of the million-plus students in its public schools. The mayor, Bill de Blasio, said most elementary school students would do remote-only learning until 29 September.
• Wuhan, ground zero for the coronavirus outbreak, has reopened for international flights, ending an eight-month moratorium since the disease first emerged. China stopped international flights in March as global alarm increased about the spread of Covid-19, but has now largely brought the disease under control.
• The World Health Organization warned of “alarming rates of transmission” of Covid-19 across Europe and cautioned countries against shortening quarantine periods. The body said the number of coronavirus cases in September “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us”.

Ireland’s cabinet is to consider a request from the National Public Health Emergency Team to stop indoor dining at pubs and restaurants in Dublin, RTE reports.

Amid rising infection rates over the last week, there is speculation that the government will agree to the proposal when it sits on Friday morning. It would mean that pubs and restaurants could only serve customers if they have outdoor areas or offer a take-away service.

You can read the full RTE story here. (I’m grateful to reader Gary for flagging this).

Lancashire appears set to be the latest apart of England to be placed under new local restrictions in a bid to stem the rise in coronavirus infections.

Reported by Lancashire Live, the restrictions will ban households from mixing in any setting, whether indoors or outdoors, and people will be advised to only use public transport if essential.

The rules will be imposed across the entire boroughs of Preston, Lancaster, Wyre, Fylde, Chorley, South Ribble, West Lancashire, Ribble Valley, Blackburn with Darwen, Burnley, Pendle, Hyndburn, and Rossendale - and, for reasons that remain unclear, will exclude certain parts of Blackpool.

Four of these boroughs - Hyndburn, Preston, Burnley, and Blackburn with Darwen - are among the 10 worst affected areas in the country.

An announcement is due to take place on Friday morning, reports suggest.

Sky News reports that the decision is backed by local leaders in Lancashire and comes after the county recorded its highest daily rise in new Covid-19 cases, as another 250 people tested positive for the virus.

A Lancashire MP told Sky the new rules were welcomed by the majority of MPs in the county, adding:

We want to get this over with as quickly as possible. We want this over by Christmas. We don’t want to lose Christmas.

It comes as the UK government imposed stricter measures on swathes of the north-east of England on Thursday, which included banning the mixing of households and imposing a 10pm curfew on nightlife.

Elsewhere, the Liverpool Echo understands that Merseyside will be placed under measures “in line” with those in the north-east after infections soared in some areas in recent weeks. A government announcement is expected tomorrow, according to the Echo.

There is also speculation of more enhanced restrictions being brought in for the city of Leeds as the infection rate there has risen rapidly.

Reuters reports that Jordan has announced jail sentences of up to a year for anyone organising weddings, parties, funerals or social gatherings where more than 20 people attend, in the latest measures aimed at heading off a resurgence in coronavirus cases.

Government spokesman Amjad Adailah said the latest orders, which stem from an emergency law enacted by the monarch last April that gives the government sweeping powers to curb civic rights, would be strictly enforced.

“This order is to prevent the violations that have led to the spread of the virus and increase in infections,” Adailah said, adding hefty fines would be imposed on attendees.

The health minister Saad Jaber blamed the surge in cases in the past few weeks on “irresponsible” behaviour at weddings and social gatherings where many mingle without masks and social distancing.

The kingdom reported 279 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, its highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic in March, bringing the country’s total to 4,131 with 26 deaths.

The authorities also suspended schools for two weeks as of Thursday for over 2 million pupils after dozens of cases were discovered among teachers and students since schools reopened at the start of the month after a five-month absence.

The cabinet last Monday also closed restaurants and places of worship from mosques to churches for a similar two-week period as of Thursday. The government also will operate with fewer civil servants.

The government has refrained, however, from a nationwide lockdown that was enforced during the spring for fear of its consequences on an already battered economy.

The transport minister Khaled Seif said on Thursday the authorities waived a two-week quarantine for travellers coming to Jordan as of next Wednesday and replaced it a week-long home quarantine.

The government hopes the latest measures will start to bring back a trickle of visitors to its private medical industry from war-torn spots in the region and help the recovery of its collapsed tourism sector, a main source of foreign currency.

Canada’s most populous province has announced new restrictions and steep fines amid a surge of Covid-19 infections that has prompted concerns the country is losing control of the virus.

Ontario premier Doug Ford on Thursday announced plans to limit the size of gatherings, reversing course on previous steps to reopen the province’s economy. The new rules reduce the size of indoor gatherings to 10, down from 50, and outdoor gatherings to 25, down from 100.

Of the coronavirus flare ups in the cities of Ottawa, Peel and Toronto, Ford said:

This is a serious situation, folks. We will throw the book at you if you break the rules. This crisis is far from over.

The province is implementing a C$10,000 fine for organisers of “illegal” gatherings. The move suggests a second wave of the virus is looming, after the province effectively slowed growth over the summer.

My colleague Leyland Cecco reports:

Gambia’s economic growth rate may fall to 2% in 2020 versus a forecast 6% due to the coronavirus pandemic, the president Adama Barrow said on Thursday, as he relaxed a nighttime curfew but kept other lockdown restrictions in place.

The gross domestic product of mainland Africa’s smallest country grew 6% in 2019 despite a sharp drop in agricultural output and the bankruptcy of Thomas Cook, the travel operator that brought around 40% of annual visitors.

Its economy, however, has not been able to weather the fallout from the global pandemic, which led authorities to ban public gatherings among a string of lockdown measures imposed after they declared a state of emergency in March.

“Based on the current situation, an estimated 20% of expected revenue will be lost,” Barrow said in a speech to the nation.

Gambia’s forecast drop in growth is in line with other countries in sub-Saharan Africa, whose combined gross domestic product was seen shrinking by 1.6% this year - its worst performance on record, according to an April forecast from the International Monetary Fund.

With the state of emergency expiring at midnight on Thursday, Barrow said the dawn-to-dusk curfew would be relaxed and shops, supermarkets and non-essential vendors would be allowed to resume normal business hours. But non-essential public places must remain closed and public gatherings are still banned.

Over 52,000 people, or 2.6%, of Gambia’s 2 million population, have lost their jobs as a result of the lockdown, Barrow said.

Gambia has reported 3,473 cases since the outbreak in March, and 107 deaths. The daily reported cases were relatively low until mid-July.

A Republican senator, Ron Johnson, who was due to join the US president Donald Trump in Wisconsin on Thursday, has instead entered quarantine after being exposed to someone who tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said in a statement.

Reuters reports that Johnson, 65, who chairs the Senate homeland security committee, has tested negative for Covid-19 and is experiencing no symptoms but will remain in quarantine until 29 September, the statement said. He was due to travel with Trump and join the president at a campaign rally in Mosinee, Wisconsin.

Since coming into contact with the coronavirus on Monday, Johnson has chaired a committee meeting and joined other lawmakers for roll-call votes on the floor of the Senate.

Several Latin American countries have informed the World Health Organization (WHO) they intend to request more time to sign up for its global Covid-19 vaccine allocation plan known as COVAX, an official at the WHO’s regional branch said on Thursday.

Countries have until midnight on Friday to formalise legally binding commitments to COVAX, a mechanism for pooled procurement and equitable distribution of eventual vaccines.

A representative for the GAVI Alliance, the COVAX secretariat, said by email that details of which nations have joined COVAX will only be made public after the deadline.

Health officials in Mexico, which has the worst outbreak in Latin America after Brazil, said their country would sign the commitment on time. Brazil, which has the world’s most severe outbreak outside the United States and India, was still studying what to do, a ministry spokesperson said.

More than 170 countries have joined the global vaccine plan to help buy and distribute immunisation shots for Covid-19 fairly around the world, WHO’s director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Thursday.

Jarbas Barbosa, assistant director of the Pan-American Health Organization, said in a briefing on Wednesday that Latin American countries were having trouble meeting the deadline and some wanted to push back the date.

Barbosa said all countries in the Americas except the United States had expressed interest in the vaccine facility, even those that have separate agreements with vaccine makers, because it gives them an added guarantee of access to doses.

Ten Latin American countries are among 90 poor nations in the world that will not have to pay for the vaccine, while the others in the region will pay an “accessible” price through COVAX, Barbosa said.

The Colombian president Ivan Duque confirmed on Wednesday that his government was joining COVAX and Paraguay’s health ministry said it has already signed, even as it plans to buy the vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca PLC and Oxford University.

France registered 10,593 new confirmed coronavirus cases over the past 24 hours, setting a new daily record and pushing the cumulative number to 415,481, the health ministry reported on Thursday.

The previous high was 10,561 new cases in a day, recorded on 12 September. The sharp increase is a result of a higher infection rate but also of a massive increase in testing, Reuters reports.

The government has made Covid-19 testing free, resulting in long queues at testing centres in cities across France.

The number of people who have died from the virus in France increased by 50 to 31,095, the second-highest tally in two months following the 80 deaths reported on 11 September.

Here is some more detail on the earlier announcement that private indoor gatherings will be limited to 10 people in Austria from Monday as the country tries to contain a rising rate of infection.

AFP reports that the chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, told a press conference the country was going through a second wave of the pandemic:

From midnight on Monday ... all parties, private events and meetings indoors are limited to 10 people. We have an exponential rise in new infections in Austria.

Funerals will be exempt from the new rules and the limit for outdoors will remain at 100, Kurz said, with further exemptions for some cultural events.

He said it would not be legally possible to enforce the new limit in people’s homes but added that he hoped Austrians would follow the rule.

Also from Monday, cafe and restaurant customers will have to wear a mask whenever they’re not at their tables. Previously only waiters and other staff were required to wear a face covering.

Austria is recording several hundred new daily infections, with the one-day total reaching 882 on 11 September, the second-highest of the whole crisis.

Kurz said he was aware the measures “will once again mean sacrifices” from the population but they were necessary “to hopefully prevent a second lockdown” and the “catastrophic consequences” that would entail.

Asked whether Vienna’s famous winter ball season could go ahead, Kurz said it was too early to say but said “autumn and winter will be very hard”, adding:

We expect a clear improvement next year in terms of progress with vaccines and treatments.

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Good evening from London! I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global updates on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. As always, please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share. I can’t always reply to everyone but do read them all – your thoughts are always welcome!

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

17 Sept 202013.46 EDT

Latest coronavirus developments

Archie Bland

Here’s a summary of recent events:

France identified Lyon and Nice as virus “red zones”, where additional measures would be needed to control the spread of Covid-19. Later Reuters reported the French government would not be joining WHO’s international vaccine programme, a blow to the UN body’s effort to discourage “vaccine nationalism”.

Canada could lose its ability to manage the coronavirus pandemic owing to a worrying recent surge in Covid-19 cases, the country’s top medical officer has said. The warning from the chief public health officer, Theresa Tam, is the clearest indication yet of how worried authorities in the country are about the potential for the outbreak to spiral out of control.

Facebook said it would no longer show health groups in its recommendations to ensure users get health information from authoritative sources. It said the move reflected its view that such sources of information were “crucial”.

In the US, New York City once again delayed the return of most of the million-plus students in its public schools. The mayor, Bill de Blasio, said most elementary school students would do remote-only learning until 29 September.

Wuhan, ground zero for the coronavirus outbreak, has reopened for international flights, ending an eight-month moratorium since the disease first emerged. China stopped international flights in March as global alarm increased about the spread of Covid-19, but has now largely brought the disease under control.

The World Health Organization warned of “alarming rates of transmission” of Covid-19 across Europe and cautioned countries against shortening quarantine periods. The body said the number of coronavirus cases in September “should serve as a wake-up call for all of us”.

That’s all from me. Lucy Campbell will pick up the baton shortly.