Health News at Your Fingertips

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is holding a press conference currently, where he has said he will not be introducing further restrictions in response to the case rise.

The record one-day case rise in Victoria, of 484 cases in a single day, is also higher than the biggest national daily case total recorded to date in Australia, my colleague Calla Wahlquist has pointed out on the Australia live blog.

The national peak was on 28 March, when 469 cases were recorded nationally.

This also means Australia has recorded its highest-one day national case total.

So far today, 501 cases have been confirmed combined for the states of Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

In Australia, the state of Victoria, which is struggling to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has seen three-digit daily case rises for more than a fortnight, has reported the highest-ever one-day new case total for an Australian state, with 484 in a single day.

The previous record, also set by Victoria on Friday last week, was 428 cases.

As part of the state’s response to the outbreak, Melbourne is in week two of a six-week stage three lockdown. Residents of metropolitan Melbourne and Mitchell Shire are also required to wear face coverings while in public.

More than one in five people in Delhi have been infected with the coronavirus, according to a study released Tuesday, indicating that most cases in the Indian capital region have gone undetected, Reuters reports.

The National Centre for Disease Control tested 21,387 people selected randomly across Delhi, the state that includes New Delhi, and found that 23.48% had antibodies to the virus. Adjusting for false positives and negatives, it estimated that 22.86% of the population had been infected by the virus, Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, who heads the institute, said in a news conference Tuesday.

Delhi, with a population of 29 million, has officially reported 123,747 cases and 3,663 deaths. The study, however, indicates more than 6.6 million likely cases, with most not identified or tested.

With more than 1.1 million reported cases, India has the third-highest confirmed caseload in the world after the United States and Brazil.

Panama will further reopen its economy next week, adding some sectors in the provinces of Los Santos, Herrera and Cocle that have a low number of novel coronavirus cases, a health official said on Tuesday.

The Central American country had already started reopening its economy in May but halted it after the number of cases rose.

Health Minister Luis Sucre told a news conference that private construction and car sales companies would be allowed to resume business activity as would those providing professional and administrative services.

The isthmus nation, separated by its famous shipping canal and sought out for its offshore banking services, implemented strict measures to curb the spread of the pandemic, including closing its borders.

So far, it has registered 55,153 coronavirus cases and 1,159 deaths.

More than 500 women at a federal medical prison in Texas have tested positive for the coronavirus, in one of the largest confirmed outbreaks at a federal prison, the Bureau of Prisons said.

AP reports the number of confirmed cases at the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth jumped to 510 on Tuesday, just two days after the Bureau of Prisons reported that 200 women there had tested positive for Covid-19, the illness caused by the coronavirus. Only the federal prison in Seagoville, also located in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, had more infected inmates, with 1,156 cases as of Tuesday.

Three weeks ago, the prison had reported only three confirmed cases of the virus among inmates. One prisoner, Andrea Circle Bear, died in April. On July 12, 69-year-old Sandra Kincaid became the second woman to die there from the virus. The third, 51-year-old Teresa Ely, died Monday.

FMC-Carswell holds female inmates with medical and mental health issues. It currently has 1,357 prisoners. Since April, many inmates have told the Forth Worth Star-Telegram that they were concerned the virus could spread through the prison.

Japan’s health ministry has approved dexamethasone, a cheap and widely used steroid, as a second treatment of Covid-19 after a trial in Britain showed the drug reduced death rates in hospitalised patients, Reuters reports.

The ministry included dexamethasone as an option for treatment along with Gilead Sciences Inc’s antiviral drug remdesivir in a recent revision to its handbook. The revision was widely reported by Japanese media on Wednesday and was viewed by Reuters.

Shares of Nichi-Iko Pharmaceutical Co, among those that produce the drug, gained as much as 6.5% in early trade.
In results announced last month, a trial by researchers in the United Kingdom showed dexamethasone as the first drug to save lives of Covid-19 patients in what scientists said was a major breakthrough in the coronavirus pandemic.

The full results of the large randomised clinical trial released last Friday in the New England Journal of Medicine confirmed the benefits for people with advanced or moderate disease.

China reported 14 new coronavirus cases in the mainland for July 21, up from 11 cases a day earlier, the health commission said on Wednesday.

Of the new infections, nine were in the far western region of Xinjiang, according to a statement by the National Health Commission. The other five were imported cases.

China reported 22 new asymptomatic patients, up from six a day earlier.

As of Tuesday, mainland China had 83,707 confirmed coronavirus cases, the health authority said. The Covid-19 death toll remained at 4,634.

AP has this dire report on Bolivia:

A special police unit collected 420 bodies over the preceding five days in two Bolivian cities, and 80% to 90% of the deceased were thought to have succumbed to Covid-19, authorities said Tuesday.

Colonel Ivan Rojas, director of the special crime-fighting force, said his officers recovered the bodies from streets, vehicles and homes in the capital, La Paz, and in Bolivia’s biggest city, Santa Cruz.

Bolivia’s Institute of Forensic Investigations said that nationally from 1 April through Sunday, its workers had recovered 3,016 bodies of people in possible Covid-19 cases.

Andrés Flores, director of the agency, said the Santa Cruz department which includes the city of that name, had the highest number of deaths, followed by Cochabamba.
As of Tuesday, officials said Bolivia has recorded 60,991 confirmed coronavirus infections and 2,218 deaths from Covid-19.

Earlier in the day, a scientific committee advising the Bolivian government proposed that the presidential election scheduled for 6 September be postponed because of the pandemic. Bolivia is trying to resolve the political crisis that erupted last November when street protests over allegations of election fraud led President Evo Morales to resign after nearly 14 years in power.

The Australian state of New South Wales has reported 16 new coronavirus cases, most of which are from known or previously identified clusters.

In a press conference, state premier Gladys Berejiklian said the next few weeks will be “the most critical since March,” and said “we are not out of the woods by any stretch.”

The state had “some level of anxiety” about community transmission, she said.

Two Chinese nationals have been indicted for seeking to steal Covid-19 vaccine research and hacking hundreds of companies in the US and abroad, including defence contractors, the US Justice Department said on Tuesday.

Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33, also targeted human rights activists in the US, China and Hong Kong, assistant attorney general John Demers alleged.

Li and Dong, who are believed to be in China, acted in some instances “for their own personal gain” and in others for the benefit of China’s Ministry of State Security, Demers said:

Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday imposed a curfew and reinstated strict measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus following a spike in cases in recent weeks, AFP reports.

The number of cases recorded in the southern African country, whose health system has been tottering from years of neglect, rose by nearly a third over the past week to a total 1,713 cases. The number of deaths climbed from 18 to 26.

Starting Wednesday, security forces will enforce a dusk-to-dawn curfew between 6pm and 6am. Mnangagwa said “all non-working” people will be required to stay at home and may only go out to buy groceries and seek health care. Travel between cities and gatherings of more than 50 people for social, religious and political reasons remained banned.

Mnangagwa initially imposed a 21-day lockdown on March 30, banning large gatherings and ordering most businesses to close except food shops in a move aimed at curbing the spread of the virus. In May he relaxed the restrictions, allowing large corporations to open but under strict conditions to ensure the safety of their staff and customers.

The latest measures effectively ban a protest organised by opposition politician Jacob Ngarivhume against state corruption and worsening economic troubles. The nationwide protests had been slated for 31 July.

Police arrested Ngarivhume along with prominent investigative journalist and documentary filmmaker Hopewell Chin’ono. Chin’ono had lately been writing about alleged corruption involving funds earmarked for anti-coronavirus supplies in what was dubbed “Covidgate”. They were both charged with incitement to commit public violence.

California on Tuesday became the second US state after New York to report more than 400,000 Covid-19 cases, according to a Reuters tally of county data.

Reuters reports that most populous US state has a total of 400,166 Covid-19 cases, putting it on the verge of surpassing New York – the original epicentre of the nation’s outbreak – for the highest number of infections.

If California were a country, and it overtakes New York, it would rank fifth in the world for total Covid-19 cases behind only the United States, Brazil, India and Russia. New York currently has over 412,800 total cases and is adding on average 700 new cases a day in July. In California there is an average of 8,300 new cases a day.

The rapid increase of cases has made it difficult to trace the pathogen’s path through the community through contact tracing, a process of interviewing people who test positive for the virus to find out how they were exposed, and whom they in turn might have exposed, said California Secretary of Health and Human Services Mark Ghaly.

“No one anticipated building a program to contact trace the number of cases we’re seeing here,” Dr. Ghaly said at a news conference, referring to Los Angeles and other counties struggling to trace cases of the disease.

A Chinese-made vaccine against the new coronavirus entered the final stage of testing Tuesday in Brazil, where volunteers received the first doses of what officials hope will be a game-changer in the global pandemic, AFP reports.

The vaccine, developed by private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, became the third in the world to enter Phase 3 clinical trials, or large-scale testing on humans – the last step before regulatory approval.

Around 9,000 health workers across six Brazilian states will receive the vaccine, known as CoronaVac, in two doses over the next three months under the study. Sao Paulo Governor Joao Doria said Monday initial results were expected within 90 days.

Sinovac is partnering with a Brazilian public health research center, the Butantan Institute, on the trials. If the vaccine proves safe and effective, the institute will have the right to produce 120 million doses under the deal, according to officials.

Brazil is also helping carry out Phase 3 testing of another experimental vaccine, developed by Oxford University and pharmaceutical firm AstraZeneca. It has a similar deal to produce that vaccine domestically if it is successful in tests, which are also being carried out in Britain and South Africa.

You can keep up with the coronavirus vaccine race with our tracker here:

At a White House press briefing on coronavirus held without public health experts in attendance, US President Donald Trump noted a “concerning rise” in coronavirus cases in parts of the southern United States and endorsed the wearing of masks, saying, the government is “asking Americans to use masks, socially distance and employ vigorous hygiene – wash your hands every chance you get”.

He also asked younger people to “avoid packed bars and other crowded indoor gatherings”.

Trump, who has downplayed the importance of masks, saying in a Fox news interview on Sunday that they could “cause problems” and who has himself refused to wear masks a number of times, asked Americans to wear face coverings “whether you like the mask or not”.

He said, “We’re asking everybody that when you are not able to socially distance wear a mask. Get a mask whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact they have an effect and we need everything we can get.”

The president was first seen wearing a mask publicly earlier this month.

Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.

My name is Helen Sullivan and I’ll be bringing you the latest news from around the world for the next few hours.

As always, it would be good to hear from you – send tips, suggestions, questions and recommend the 2005 film Earthlings starring Joaquin Phoenix to me on Twitter @helenrsullivan or via email: helen.sullivan@theguardian.com.

After repeatedly downplaying the importance of masks, US President Donald Trump today in a coronavirus press briefing – held without health experts in attendance – asked Americans to face masks wear masks ‘whether they like it or not’.

Meanwhile, a third coronavirus vaccine has started the final testing phase. Developed by private Chinese pharmaceutical firm Sinovac Biotech, the vaccine entered the final stage of testing Tuesday in Brazil, where volunteers received the first doses of what officials hope will be a game-changer in the global pandemic.

Here are the key developments from the last few hours:

• There are 14.8m coronavirus cases worldwide, according to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, and 613,232 known deaths.
• The US president Donald Trump has asked Americans to wear masks “whether you like the mask or not”, despite refusing to wear one himself on many occasions. The president was first seen wearing a mask publicly earlier this month.
• Brazil has confirmed 41,008 more cases in the past 24 hours, as well as 1,367 related deaths, the country’s health ministry has said. Brazil has registered nearly 2.2m cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 81,487, according to ministry data.
• The euro hit an 18-month high and stock markets gained ground after the EU agreed a €750bn pandemic recovery fund, in a deal struck hot on the heels of reports that a coronavirus vaccine could be ready within months.After more than four days of tortuous negotiation, the EU’s 27 leaders resolved to issue debt jointly, with the proceeds to be disbursed to countries wrestling with an economic downturn not seen since the Great Depression.
• The United States is failing to report vital information on Covid-19. The data would help authorities track the spread of the disease and prevent the deaths of tens of thousands of Americans, according to the first comprehensive review of the nation’s coronavirus data.
• Covid-19 is showing no signs of “slowing down” in the Americas. Carissa Etienne, the Pan American Health Organization director, said there were surges in Bolivia, Ecuador, Colombia and Peru. Etienne also said some central American nations were seeing their highest weekly increase of cases since the pandemic began.
• UK records 110 new coronavirus-related deaths. A further 110 people have died in the UK after testing positive for Covid-19 across all settings – including hospitals and the wider community. The total number of recorded coronavirus deaths in the country now stands at 45,422, according to government figures.
• Spain will send €1.7 billion in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus outbreak. Spain will send €1.7bn in aid to developing countries to help them deal with coronavirus pandemic, foreign minister Arancha Gonzalez Laya said on Tuesday. Spain hopes to save lives and strengthen public health systems.
• Iran announces record daily deaths. The health ministry said 229 people have died of coronavirus in the past 24 hours, a new high as the country struggles to contain the virus.
• Italy to receive €210bn from new EU fund. Some EU member states have been setting out how much financial support they are likely to receive following the €750bn deal struck at the end of a marathon negotiating session on Tuesday morning.