Nearly 3,000 miners infected in Chile
Unions at Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, said on Wednesday that nearly 3,000 workers had been infected with the coronavirus, prompting renewed calls for more safety measures at the company’s sprawling operations.
Patricio Elgueta, president of the Federation of Copper Workers, an umbrella group for the company’s unions, told Reuters it had tallied 2,843 coronavirus infections among workers as of 5 July. Codelco did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the figure.
Some unions and social groups have called on Codelco and other miners to halt operations around the mining hub of Calama, a desert city surrounded by some of Chile’s largest copper deposits.
Chile will begin easing lockdown measures in two southern regions on Monday with 800,000 people able to resume some of their activities and those over 75 able to go out once a day.
Restaurants, cinemas, theaters and cafes will be allowed to open at 25% capacity. Sporting activities can be carried out without an audience and can include up to 10 people in enclosed spaces and 50 in the open.
The new measures will apply in the Los Ríos and Aysén regions in the countrys south. If a new outbreak occurs in either region, the government said tighter restrictions will be considered.
The number of people with confirmed infections of the new coronavirus surpassed 300,000 in the South American country, the sixth highest figure in the world.
Trump’s Tulsa rally ‘likely contributed’ to city’s surge in cases
US President Donald Trump’s campaign rally in Tulsa in late June that drew thousands of participants and large protests “likely contributed” to a dramatic surge in new coronavirus cases, Tulsa City-County Health Department Director Dr. Bruce Dart said Wednesday.
Tulsa County reported 261 confirmed new cases on Monday, a one-day record high, and another 206 cases on Tuesday. By comparison, during the week before the June 20 Trump rally, there were 76 cases on Monday and 96 on Tuesday.
Although the health department’s policy is to not publicly identify individual settings where people may have contracted the virus, Dart said those large gatherings “more than likely” contributed to the spike.
“In the past few days, we’ve seen almost 500 new cases, and we had several large events just over two weeks ago, so I guess we just connect the dots,” Dart said.
Trump’s Tulsa rally, his first since the coronavirus pandemic hit the US, attracted thousands of people from around the country. About 6,200 people gathered inside the 19,000-seat BOK Center arena far fewer than was expected.
Dart had urged the campaign to consider pushing back the date of the rally, fearing a potential surge in the number of coronavirus cases.
Although masks were provided to rally goers, there was no requirement that participants wear them, and most didn’t, AP reports.
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Australian city of Melbourne re-enters lockdown
Australia’s second largest city, Melbourne, has re-entered lockdown, as the state of Victoria struggles to contain a coronavirus outbreak that has seen daily cases rise by over 100 for several days.
The curve has flattened, bent, and bounced back up. The jigsaw puzzles have all been completed, and children who were prepared to go along with the first seven-week lockdown being a fun adventure are now anxious. Holidays were cancelled, again.
The return to lockdown, announced after Victoria recorded its highest daily increase in cases of the pandemic so far, was met with a mixture of resignation and relief; fury and sadness.
The stage three stay-at-home orders that will apply across greater Melbourne and the Mitchell shire ban anyone from leaving their home except for essential shopping, work or school that cannot be done remotely, caregiving and medical appointments, and exercise.
