Health News at Your Fingertips

The global Covid-19 death toll has reached 650,029, with over 16 million cases now confirmed worldwide.

The disease has surged back at hotspots in Asia, Europe and the Americas, prompting renewed restrictions, targeted lockdowns and compulsory mask-wearing orders.

Australia has been rocked by its deadliest surge since the start of the pandemic, Hong Kong is experiencing record daily numbers and Spain’s caseload has tripled in the last fortnight.

The US still ahead in cases and deaths, with 147,143 fatalities from the virus.

The number of cases are still rising rapidly around the country as it approaches the 150,000 deaths.

The WHO said today that experts would meet this week to discuss downgrading Covid-19’s emergency status, six months after it was declared.

Hi everyone, this is Jessica Murray, I’ll be taking over the coronavirus blog for the next few hours.

Please do get in touch with any story tips or suggestions.

Email: jessica.murray@theguardian.com
Twitter: @journojess_

Here are the top lines of our coronavirus world news coverage so far on Monday:

• The coronavirus pandemic is the worst global health emergency the World Health Organisation has faced, its director general, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, has said, according to Reuters. Only with strict adherence to health measures, from wearing masks to avoiding crowds, would the world beat it, Tedros told a virtual news briefing in Geneva.
• The trade body representing Spain’s hotel industry has offered to pay for coronavirus tests for foreign visitors, in an effort to lure back visitors put off by a fresh wave of cases. The UK government on Saturday shocked hoteliers and holidaymakers with an unexpected 14-day quarantine on people returning from Spain. On Monday, the UK extended a travel warning to the Balearic and Canary islands.
• The UK’s economic recovery from the Covid-19 crisis could take 18 months longer than expected with hopes of a V-shaped recovery fading fast, according to a leading economic forecaster. Britain’s economic output is not expected to return to its 2019 level until the end of 2024, the EY Item Club said on Monday in its latest projections on the health of the UK economy.
• Coronavirus has reached the high reaches of the US government, with Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, having tested positive. The White House confirmed that he had mild symptoms and said he “has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site.” Officials did not respond to questions about the last time the president and O’Brien had contact.
• Germany’s health minister Jens Spahn has just announced he is planning to introduce obligatory testing for travellers returning from areas considered high risk because of their level of cases. “I will mandate obligatory testing for travellers from risk areas,” he said a few minutes ago. It is unclear when or how the regulation will come into force.
• Belgium’s prime minister Sophie Wilmès has announced a series of further restrictive measures following a significant spike in coronavirus infections, warning that the country could be put into a second “complete lockdown”. “If we cannot reduce the coronavirus, it will be a collective failure,” Wilmès said at a press conference following a meeting of the country’s national security council.
• A US biotechnology company has announced it has started a government-backed late-stage trial to assess its Covid-19 vaccine candidate. Moderna’s RNA-based vaccine will be given to about 30,000 adults who do not have the respiratory illness caused by the new coronavirus. The US government is supporting Moderna’s vaccine project with nearly a billion dollars.
• Indonesia confirmed has its 100,00th coronavirus case, as the Red Cross warned the that the pandemic in the vast archipelago risked “spiralling out of control”. The country – home to more than a quarter of a billion people – has been recording 1,000-plus new infections a day after relaxing movement restrictions this month. As of Monday, it had reported a total of 100,303 coronavirus cases and 4,838 deaths.
• Vietnam is evacuating 80,00o people from the central city of Danang and has reimposed disease-prevention measures, after 11 local coronavirus cases were detected, the first to be recorded in the country for more than three months. The source of the new cases is not clear.
• Chinese health authorities have announced they plan to test all six million plus residents of a northeastern city where a growing infection cluster has spread to seven other cities. Dalian, in Liaoning province, reported 12 new locally transmitted cases of Covid-19 on Saturday, and 14 asymptomatic cases. The first of the 24 cases confirmed so far was reported on Wednesday, in a 58-year-old man.

That’s it from me, Damien Gayle, for today.

The World Health Organization has called on Bosnia to step up its contact tracing and testing, with a rising number of coronavirus cases threatening the country’s health service, according to the Associated Press.

“We see a really sharp increase and concern is that this will lead to an overcrowding of hospitals,” said Victor Olsavszky, the head of the WHO office in Bosnia.

On several occasions over the past two weeks, major hospitals around Bosnia have warned that their Covid-19 care units were nearing capacity.

So far, the Balkan country of 3.5 million people has recorded almost 10,500 virus cases, with 294 deaths. Nearly 80% of all virus cases were registered since mid-May, when a strict, nearly two-month-long, coronavirus lockdown was lifted.

Olsavszky said the pandemic trajectory in Bosnia was similarly worrying in Western Balkan countries, singling out North Macedonia and Serbia as having even bigger surges.

Despite the mounting number of infections, people in Bosnia and around the Balkans appear to be bending or ignoring social distancing rules, increasingly gathering in uncomfortably close quarters and ditching protective face masks.

The trade body representing Spain’s hotel industry has offered to pay for coronavirus tests for foreign, in an effort to lure back visitors put off by a fresh wave of cases, according to Reuters.

The UK government on Saturday shocked hoteliers and holidaymakers with an unexpected 14-day quarantine on people returning from Spain, in a major blow to a tourist season already hanging on by a thread. On Monday, the UK’s foreign office extended a travel warning for mainland Spain to the Balearic and Canary islands, both holiday hotspots.

“Not only is it unjust but it’s also totally illogical and lacking in rigour,” Spain’s main hotel association CEHAT said of the quarantine.

The association proposed a system of reciprocal testing across Europe that would provide greater safety for travellers, workers and people who live in tourist destinations.

“We are prepared to bear this cost,” CEHAT’s president, Jorge Marichal, said in a video posted on social media.

The Archbishop of Barcelona is to be investigated for possibly breaking hygiene rules by holding an unauthorised mass, the Associated Press reports.

Juan José Omella held a service Sunday at La Sagrada Familia Basilica in memory of victims of the coronavirus.

Catalonia has implemented tight restrictions on gatherings as it tries to stem a growing outbreak of Covid-19. The region reported 133 new cases on Saturday, the second-highest increase across Spain.

The head of Catalonia’s regional government, Quim Torra, said on Monday that regional health authorities gave no prior permission for the ceremony, as required under the current rules.

Coronavirus has reached the high reaches of the US government, with Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Robert O’Brien, having tested positive — the highest-ranking official known to have contracted the virus so far.

The Associated Press reported O’Brien’s positive diagnosis, citing two anonymous sources. The White House confirmed that O’Brien has mild symptoms and told the agency he “has been self-isolating and working from a secure location off site.”

Officials did not respond to questions about the last time the president and O’Brien had contact, but the White House insisted that, “There is no risk of exposure to the president or the vice president” and that the “work of the National Security Council continues uninterrupted.”

The news was first reported by Bloomberg News, which said O’Brien came down with the virus after a family event. The White House economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, told reporters on Monday morning that O’Brien’s daughter also has the virus, and that that is how they think he got it.

O’Brien is the highest-ranking White House official known to have contracted the virus and the first since May, when a personal valet to the president and the vice president’s press secretary tested positive for coronavirus, which has now infected more than 4 million people across the country.

Numerous US Secret Service agents and Trump campaign staffers have also tested positive, including Kimberly Guilfoyle, the national finance chair, who is the girlfriend of Trump’s oldest son, Donald Trump Jr.

Senior White House staff and anyone who comes into close contact with the president and vice president are tested for the virus daily.

Travellers between Spain and the UK have expressed their shock at the UK government’s sudden decision to impose a two-week quarantine on Saturday 25 March.

Spain has said it is in talks over the potential removal of quarantine restrictions for travellers going to the UK from the Canaries and Balearics where the rate of infection is ‘well below’ that of the UK.

Kenya has banned the sale of alcohol in restaurants and extended a curfew in a bid to halt a steep rise in coronavirus infections, according to AFP.

In a stern lecture, the president, Uhuru Kenyatta, rebuked Kenyans for “reckless” behaviour that has seen cases triple in the past month to 17,975

So far, 285 have died.

Kenyatta said there was an “aggressive surge” among young people socialising “particularly in environments serving alcohol”, then in turn infecting their elders.

He ordered that a nationwide curfew from 9pm to 4am will remain in place for another 30 days and “there shall be no sale of alcoholic beverages or drinks in eateries and restaurants” over the same period.

Restaurants will also close from 7pm.

“All bars shall remain closed until further notice,” Kenyatta said.

Like many nations in East Africa, Kenya took swift action to combat the coronavirus, closing its borders on March 25 when it had only 25 cases, shutting schools and imposing a curfew while advising people to work from home.

However bars took advantage of the fact that restaurants were allowed to remain open and began selling food.

The UK’s caseload has exceeded 300,000, according to official figures. The latest UK government data show 685 new cases have been detected, taking the total to 300,111, while seven more people have died, meaning the country’s overall official death toll is 45,759.