The Belgian government has paused its planned easing of the country’s lockdown and brought in new restrictive measures after the daily infection rate hit numbers not seen since mid-May.
Of the 370 people newly tested positive on Monday, 32% were in the city of Antwerp but the relatively small size of the country has forced the government to block plans to allow large gatherings.
Belgium’s prime minister Sophie Wilmés said: “Since last week, the average infection rate has increased considerably. The reproduction number has also risen above 1 since last week. This indicates that the epidemic is flaring up again.
“Young adults between 20 and 30 are the most frequently affected. Although the number of infections is increasing throughout the country, we also see more local flare-ups”.
From Saturday, wearing a face mask will be mandatory in an increased number of public places including busy shopping streets, markets and in public buildings. People in a restaurant will also need to use a mask when visiting the bathroom and they will be required to leave an email address or telephone number.
With the holiday season in full flow, all returning travellers will have to complete a form within 48 hours of arrival in Belgium.
Wilmes said: “It’s a blow to our morale but we must take action today so that we have no regrets tomorrow. We must act collectively. Everyone is an actor in this crisis,” said Wilmès.
She added: “These rules are not advice but instructions. And as always, take care of yourself, and take care of others. And the best way to do that is by following the measures”.
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At the Machakos Covid-19 field hospital, about an hour’s drive from the Kenyan capital, workers struggle to put a giant metal tent frame in place to serve as a new ward.
Machakos county, which has 92 active cases of the virus, has already met the required minimum of 300 beds per county for Covid-19 patients, set by the national government.
But as national figures surge, Machakos is preparing for more infections. Positive cases in Kenya have nearly doubled in the last two weeks to 15,601, mirroring a continental surge. Africa topped 750,000 cases on Wednesday.
“When you see such numbers coming up that fast, you get worried,” said David Mutunga, an official in the Machakos county’s department of health emergency services.
“Before those numbers go out of hand, we are racing against time to ensure we have adequate capacity.”
It is not just officials in Machakos who are concerned by the rise in cases in Kenya and beyond.
President Uhuru Kenyatta, who opened movement into and out of Nairobi earlier this month and lifted a ban on international commercial passenger flights from 1 August has summoned top national and local government officials to a meeting on Monday, to discuss what to do about the recent surge.
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There is a chink of hope in Ireland as the latest data on coronavirus has shown “the start of something positive”, the State’s acting chief medical officer has said.
The Irish Times reports that Dr Ronan Glynn said the spread of the virus had stabilised over the past week after transmission had increased over the previous two weeks.
Speaking at the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) briefing on Thursday, he added: “It is absolutely early days. Last week we were uncertain and worried. The week before we were uncertain and pessimistic. This week we can be uncertain but optimistic.”
Dr Glynn said the latest data on Covid-19 in the State was “the start of something positive and we need to see it continue in the same way over the coming weeks”.
He told the briefing that it was “too early” to decide whether remaining pubs, which do not serve a substantial meal, so-called “wet pubs”, could reopen again on 10 August.
Asked whether he was fearful that reopening pubs first would prevent schools reopening, he said that pubs were “one of the highest risk environments” and that a decision would have to be taken on whether to reopen them in two weeks’ time based on where the virus was then.
“We can’t do anything to jeopardise the overarching priorities,” he said.
Dr Glynn said the country was “absolutely on track for children to go back to school in September” based on how the Covid-19 infection rate has stabilised.
Nine further coronavirus-related deaths and seven new confirmed cases of Covid-19 were reported in Ireland on Wednesday, bringing total deaths to 1,763. Dr Glynn pointed out that eight of the deaths were late notifications and had occurred in April, May and June.
Some good news: Scientists in New Zealand say the country has the lowest Covid-19 death rate in the OECD group of wealthy nations, with four confirmed deaths from the virus per million inhabitants of the nation.
That compares with five deaths per million people in Australia, 666 deaths per million in the UK, and 428 deaths per million in the US. Belgium had the highest death rate, with 845 deaths per million population.
If New Zealand had reported the average death rate among the OECD’s 37 member countries, the Otago University researchers say, 990 people would have died. The country’s actual death toll was 22, with fewer than 1,500 confirmed cases.
New Zealand is the only OECD country that has recorded more than 28 days with no known community transmission of the virus. There are 21 active cases of the virus, all diagnosed in returning travelers, who are in managed isolation facilities.
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India’s death toll from coronavirus overtook France on Friday with 30,601 fatalities and nearly 50,000 new cases overnight, official data showed.
The death toll is the sixth-biggest behind the US, Brazil, Britain, Mexico and Italy. It has the third-highest caseload with almost 1.3 million infections.
In the past 24 hours the country recorded 740 new deaths from the virus and 49,310 fresh infections, according to the health ministry.
But many experts say that with testing levels low, the extent of the pandemic across the world’s second-most populous country may be far worse than officially reported.
An antibody study commissioned by the government showed this week that almost a quarter of people in the capital New Delhi have had the virus – almost 40 times the official number.
Prime minister Narendra Modi’s government imposed one of the world’s strictest lockdowns in late March, but it has been steadily eased to lessen the devastating economic impact of the pandemic.
State governments have brought in fresh restrictions as cases soar in Bangalore and away from the big cities in Bihar, West Bengal, Kashmir and parts of Tamil Nadu.
Southern Kerala state, earlier hailed as a success story and which has already imposed partial restrictions, may decide on Monday to impose a full statewide lockdown, reports said.
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Vietnam, one of Asia’s biggest consumers of wildlife products, has suspended all imports of wild animal species “dead or alive” and vowed to “eliminate” illegal markets across the country.
The directive signed by the leader of the Communist country follows an international scandal over the sale of wildlife, which has been blamed as the origin of the coronavirus pandemic in neighbouring China.
It is a major victory for conservation groups who have in the past accused Vietnamese authorities of turning a blind eye to the rampant trade in endangered species inside and across its borders.
“The prime minister orders the suspension of imports of wildlife – dead or alive – their eggs … parts or derivatives,” said the order released Thursday on the government website.
“All citizens, especially officials … must not participate in illegal poaching, buying, selling, transporting … of illegal wildlife.”
Among the most frequently smuggled animal goods are tiger parts, rhino horn and pangolins used in traditional medicine.
Despite the high prices they command – with ingredients trafficked from as far as Africa – there is no scientific evidence of their health benefits in humans.
Vietnam locked down swiftly to dodge a major health crisis as Covid-19 emerged, but its economy has been hit hard.
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Global report: Red Cross warns of big post-Covid-19 migration as WHO hits back at US
The coronavirus crisis could spark huge waves of fresh migration once borders reopen, the head of the Red Cross has warned. It comes as the WHO’s chief accused the US of making “untrue” and “unacceptable” claims against the global health body.
The head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Jagan Chapagain, said he was deeply concerned about the secondary effects of the pandemic, as border closures and Covid-19 restrictions have driven millions into poverty.
“Increasingly we are seeing in many countries the impacts on the livelihoods and the food situation,” he said in an interview with Agence France-Presse.
Many people are already faced with the choice of risking exposure to the novel coronavirus or going hungry, Chapagain said, warning that the desperation being generated could have far-reaching consequences.
“What we hear is that many people who are losing livelihoods, once the borders start opening, will feel compelled to move,” he said. “We should not be surprised if there is a massive impact on migration in the coming months and years.”
A fund set up by 1917 director Sam Mendes to help theatre freelancers hit by the impact of Covid-19 has raised £1.6m, but industry figures have said more support is needed to avoid an exodus of workers from the sector.
The Theatre Artists Fund, which was launched at the start of July with a £500,000 donation from Netflix, has had more than 4,000 applications in less than a month and will provide one-off grants of £1,000.
Mendes said the fund had received donations from actors and writers including Michaela Coel, Armando Iannucci and Imelda Staunton, with £85,000 in donations coming – in part – from members of the public. But despite the support, Mendes said the grants would provide assistance to only a small fraction of the freelancers who made up 70% of theatre’s workforce:
