Health News at Your Fingertips

New coronavirus measures have been announced in Brussels.

From 26 October, masks will be compulsory throughout the country, while cultural venues (museums, galleries) and sports facilities will be closed.

Other measures include shops closing at 8pm, and takeaways operating until 10pm.

Italy reported a new daily record of 19,644 new coronavirus infections on Saturday as the government considered further measures to limit the surge in cases.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has said he wants to avoid a nationwide lockdown like the one during spring. Several regions have imposed overnight curfews.

It follows clashes between protesters and police in Naples late on Friday night after a nighttime curfew was ordered in the Campania region.

Damien Gayle with a video from London’s anti-lockdown protest, which has been ordered to disperse:

Jason Rodrigues also reports that there’s been “at least one arrest” by Westminster Bridge:

There have been a further 23,012 lab-confirmed coronavirus cases recorded in the UK, according to government data. This compares with 20,530 new cases registered on Friday.

A total of 854,010 people have tested positive.

A further 174 deaths within 28 days of a positive test were reported on Saturday, bringing the total to 44,571. There were 224 deaths on Friday.

An investigation is underway in the Chinese region of Xinjiang after an asymptomatic coronavirus case was identified in the city of Kashgar on Saturday, the health commission said.

It is mainland China’s first local case since 14 October, when one was reported in Qingdao. No new cases have been found in Xinjiang since 15 August, when a cluster of infections were reported.

The case was identified after the patient, a 17-year-old woman, was tested during a regular inspection. She has been transferred to a hospital in the city and all close contacts have been isolated.

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Thousands of people have signed a petition calling on the Welsh government to reverse a ban on supermarkets selling non-essential items during the firebreak lockdown in Wales.

The country’s first minister, Mark Drakeford, said the restriction was a “matter of fairness” as non-essential retail has to close during the two-week period, which began at 6 pm on Friday and will last until 9 November.

Guidance published by the Welsh government says certain sections of supermarkets must be “cordoned off or emptied, and closed to the public”.

These include areas selling electrical goods, telephones, clothes, toys and games, garden products and dedicated sections for homewares. Supplies for the “essential upkeep, maintenance and functioning of the household” – such as batteries, lightbulbs and rubber gloves – can be sold during the lockdown.

Colombia is set to surpass a million Covid-19 infections on Saturday, becoming the eighth country to do so.

As scientists around the world race to find an effective inoculation, Colombia says it is ready to distribute any vaccine that proves effective.

Its preparedness is thanks to decades of work on a free government immunisation programme that offers 21 vaccines to all Colombians, among the South America’s most generous for vaccine provision.

“We have a really strong vaccination programme that serves as a model and which will incorporate the new formula that will arrive against Covid,” Gerardo Burgos, the secretary general of the health ministry, told Reuters.

The programme covers not onlyColombia’s own population of about 50 million people but also more than 1.7 million Venezuelan migrants and includes everything from infant shots to human papillomavirus. The country delivers about 23 million vaccinations a year.

Colombia has already committed $213m to the global Covax initiative, guaranteeing Covid-19 vaccinations for about 10 million people. People over 60, those with pre-existing conditions and healthcare workers will be immunised first.

Colombia’s cases have climbed steadily despite more than five months of a gradually loosened lockdown. The death toll is set to top 30,000 people over the weekend.

Chile has identified more than 500,000 coronavirus cases since the outbreak began in March, the health ministry said on Saturday.

The ministry said 500,542 Chileans were now confirmed to have suffered from the virus, including 1,631 cases added in the past day and 48 deaths, taking fatalities to a total of 13,892. Active cases are at a record low of 9,900, it added.

Chile, which was among the worst-hit countries in July, ranking only behind Qatar globally for per capita cases , has gradually eased its lockdown over the past two months. Restaurants and bars have opened with limited capacity, office workers are returning and some schools have reopened.

Chileans will vote on Sunday in a referendum on whether to replace the country’s Pinochet-era constitution.

The charter, drawn up by a key lieutenant of the military leader Augusto Pinochet in 1980, is blamed for segmenting pension, health and education provisions and entrenching inequality.

The organiser of a party attended by more than 50 people has been handed a £10,000 fine for “blatant disregard” of Covid-19 regulations.

Police were called to a flat in Simpson Street, Angel Meadows, Manchester, shortly after 11.20 pm (BST) on Friday. Officers found DJ mixing decks, speakers, a buffet and about 50 people in attendance, Greater Manchester Police said.

The force said the party was closed down and the organiser given a £10,000 fixed penalty notice for breaching coronavirus legislation, one of the first issued since Greater Manchester entered tier 3 restrictions.

A further 1,324 people have tested positive for coronavirus in Wales, bringing the total number of confirmed cases to 41,577. Public Health Wales said 16 people with Covid-19 had died, bringing the total number of deaths to 1,772.

The government is set to deliver £75m in grants to 35 of the country’s top cultural organisations and venues, from the Old Vic to Shakespeare’s Globe.

It is the latest tranche of money to be distributed from the government’s £1.57bn culture recovery fund. These grants are the largest to have come from the package to date and will go to bodies which require between £1m and £3m.

Money was allocated based on whether applicants provided jobs, supported the wider community and engaged with the public through innovative means during the pandemic.

More than £52m – 70% of the total awarded in this round – will go to organisations outside London. The culture secretary, Oliver Dowden, said: “As part of our unprecedented £1.57bn rescue fund, today we’re saving British cultural icons with large grants of up to £3m – from Shakespeare’s Globe to the Sheffield Crucible.

The fund has also distributed £188m to the devolved administrations – with £97m for Scotland, £59m for Wales and £33m for Northern Ireland.