Mainland China reported 17 new Covid-19 cases on 3 December, up from 16 cases a day earlier, the country’s national health authority said on Friday.
The National Health Commission, in a statement, said 15 of the new cases were imported infections originating from overseas. There were also two locally transmitted infections in the Inner Mongolia region, the commission said.
The number of new asymptomatic cases, which China does not classify as confirmed cases, rose to 12 from five cases a day earlier.
The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Mainland China now stands at 86,584, while the death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 23,449 to 1,130,238, data from the Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases showed on Friday.
The reported death toll rose by 432 to 18,034, the tally showed.
In a break from coronavirus news, a 15-year-old scientist and inventor has been named as Time magazine’s first “kid of the year”.
Gitanjali Rao, from Denver, Colorado, has invented new technologies across a range of fields, including a device that can identify lead in drinking water, and an app and Chrome extension that uses artificial intelligence to detect cyberbullying.
She said she hoped she could inspire others to dream up ideas to “solve the world’s problems”.
Gitanjali was chosen from a field of 5,000 US-based nominees, which was whittled down to five finalists by a committee of young people alongside comedian and TV presenter Trevor Noah.
She and the other four finalists will be honoured in a TV special next Friday:
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday decried countries – without naming any – who rejected facts about the coronavirus pandemic and ignored guidance from the World Health Organization (WHO), Reuters reports.
Guterres addressed a special session of the 193-member UN General Assembly on Covid-19, which emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year and spread globally, so far infecting nearly 65 million people and killing nearly 1.5 million.
Dozens of world leaders have submitted pre-recorded video statements for the two-day meeting.
“From the start, the World Health Organization provided factual information and scientific guidance that should have been the basis for a coordinated global response,” Guterres said.
“Unfortunately, many of these recommendations were not followed. And in some situations, there was a rejection of facts and an ignoring of the guidance. And when countries go in their own direction, the virus goes in every direction,” he said.
US President Donald Trump cut funding to the WHO earlier this year and announced plans to quit the Geneva-based body over accusations it was a puppet of China, which the WHO denied. The U.S. withdrawal would have taken effect in July next year, but US President-elect Joe Biden has said he will rescind the move.
“The pandemic underscores the importance of the World Health Organization, an institution that needs to be strengthened,” said German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Long-simmering tensions between the United States and China hit boiling point over the pandemic at the United Nations, where months of bickering between the superpowers has spotlighted Beijing’s bid for greater multilateral influence in a challenge to Washington’s traditional global influence.
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An Alabama man who spent World War II repairing bomb-damaged trains in France recovered from a fight with Covid-19 in time to mark his 104th birthday on Thursday.
Major Wooten was physically drained and a little fuzzy mentally after battling the new coronavirus but appears to be on the mend, said granddaughter Holley Wooten McDonald.
AP reports: “I’m just thankful that they were able to treat him so quickly and we were able to get him tested,” said McDonald, adding: “It’s amazing that a 104 year old survived Covid.”
Madison Hospital shared video of Wooten wearing a face mask and waving while workers sang “Happy birthday dear Pop Pop” as he was discharged in a wheelchair decorated with balloons on Tuesday, two days before his actual birthday.
McDonald said her grandfather, who served as a private first class in the Army before going on to a postwar career with US Steel in Birmingham, tested positive for Covid-19 on 23 November after her mother — his daughter — got the illness.
He received an infusion of the newly approved monoclonal antibody therapy bamlanivimab but was physically drained the next day and had to be taken to the hospital by ambulance the day before Thanksgiving, she said.
“He was on cloud nine after that,” she said. For Wooten’s birthday, a company erected a yard display that included the Alabama athletics logo, a cake, candles and a patriotic hat.
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Families across the UK are being allowed to gather over Christmas, even as tens of thousands of new coronavirus cases are recorded each day. Is it possible to have a safe holiday? On Today on Focus, the Guardian’s science correspondent Nicola Davis offers some guidance on how to have a Covid-safe Christmas:
Costa Rica signs Covid-19 vaccine deal with Pfizer and BioNTech
Costa Rica has signed an agreement with pharmaceutical companies Pfizer Inc and its German partner BioNTech SE for the manufacture and delivery of 3 million Covid-19 vaccines next year, the office of President Carlos Alvarado said on Thursday.
Deliveries will be made throughout the four quarters of 2021, as established in an initial agreement announced on 1 October, the president’s office said in a statement.
The deal will allow Costa Rica to provide two doses to 1.5 million people and follows accords with AstraZeneca and the Covax mechanism backed by the World Health Organization. In total, the agreements should cover about 3 million people, or almost 60% of the Costa Rican population.
The central American country has so far registered some 142,505 cases of coronavirus and 1,757 related deaths.
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California has announced sweeping plans for a new, regional stay-at-home order that is likely to affect nearly all of the state within days.
The order is pegged to hospital capacity – regions where where ICU capacity falls below 15% will come under the new restrictions.
The orders are the strictest to be imposed since the statewide stay-at-home order in March. “This is the most challenging moment since the start of the pandemic,” said the governor, Gavin Newsom, announcing the order on Thursday.
So what does it mean, and will it work?
The Guardian’s Vivian Ho explains:
South Korea considering tighter restrictions amid case surge
South Korea said it is considering tightening its social distancing rules as it reported 629 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the most since the first wave of infections in the country peaked in late February, Reuters reports.
Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun said the situation was critical as infections continued to rise at an alarming rate despite the reimposition of social-distancing rules late last month.
The government would decide on Sunday whether to upgrade restrictions, he said.
“It’s been 10 days since we upgraded the social distancing rules to phase 2 in the Seoul metropolitan area, but the transmission still seems to be uncontainable,” Chung told a government meeting according to Yonhap news agency.
Of the new cases, 295 were from capital Seoul, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported. South Korea has now reported a total of 36,332 infections, with 536 deaths.
Authorities are concerned that university entrance exams which nearly half a million students sat on Thursday could prove to be another source of infections.
Chung urged students to refrain from visiting high-risk areas such as karaoke bars and internet cafes as they celebrate the end of the exam period.
Japan’s prime minister, Yoshihide Suga, is set to hold a news conference to provide an update on the country’s pandemic response on Friday, local media reported, his first since coronavirus case numbers surged in November.
Suga is expected to explain his backing of a widely criticised travel subsidy campaign meant to help revive the economy amid infection controls.
In recent weeks, a third wave of the coronavirus has arrived in parts of the country, and some medical groups and experts blame it on a government campaign to encourage domestic tourism.
His news conference is scheduled for late Friday, Jiji Press said, but the Prime Minister’s Office has yet to confirm it.
Suga’s approval ratings have dipped, with many unhappy with his handling of the pandemic, polls showed. That could deal a blow to his plan to prop up local economies and may threaten the chances of his premiership beyond next autumn.
South Korea reports highest cases in nine months
South Korea reported 629 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest number in nine months.
Of the new cases, 295 were from capital Seoul alone, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency reported.
New Zealand’s Covid-19 minister has called for patience in the country’s vaccine roll-out programme, saying he was unlikely to follow the UK in using emergency provisions to fast-track approval.
Covid-19 minister Chris Hipkins said: “We are in a slightly different position to other countries who are using emergency provisions to approve the vaccine, and in many cases those countries are doing that because they are suffering hugely from Covid, with thousands of people dying every day.”
New Zealand faced a different situation, he said, but added: “We are getting ready, getting geared up so that when vaccines arrive in New Zealand they are pre-approved.”
New Zealand experts agree the country, like Australia, can sustain a longer wait and should take a strategic approach to its vaccination program:
Mexico’s health ministry on Thursday reported 11,030 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infection and 608 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 1,144,643 cases and 108,173 deaths.
The government says the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.