New Zealand virus pair stopped to meet friends
The quarantine blunder that led to two women in New Zealand – who had recently arrived from Britain and were infected with Covid-19 – leaving quarantine without being tested for the virus appears to have gone from bad to worse for the country’s health authorities.
Officials initially said the women had driven from the city of Auckland to Wellington – a trip of nearly 650 km, taking about 8 hours – without stopping for fuel or bathroom breaks after they were allowed to leave quarantine early on compassionate grounds because one of their parents had died.
But the health ministry has now been forced to admit that the women had, in fact, met up with friends early in their journey to get directions after they got lost leaving Auckland. The pair had “limited physical contact” with two friends for up to five minutes, a statement just released by the ministry says.
The fiasco had initially been framed as simply a failure to test the women before they left quarantine – and has resulted in Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, removing the policy of compassionate exemption to isolation for returning travelers who wished to visit dying relatives.
New Zealand’s top health official initially said that the women had “done everything right” and had not put any member of the public at risk during their trip.
But news that the women stopped on their trip – information that only came to light after a member of the public posted about it on Facebook, and it was raised in parliament by an opposition lawmaker in parliament – is likely to cause more political ripples for Ardern, her health minister, and other officials.
Five foreigners from Australia, China and the US will be deported from Nepal and barred from returning for two years after protesting against the government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis, officials said Wednesday.
The five were among seven foreigners detained on Saturday when hundreds of people defied a nationwide lockdown to take part in the peaceful demonstration.
They demanded better virus testing, quarantine facilities for returning migrant workers and transparency from the government.
Nepal’s immigration department chief Ramesh Kumar KC told AFP they were being deported for joining a political rally in “a breach of tourist visa rules”.
They will be sent to their respective countries when international flights resume. They have also been banned from entering the country for two years.
Nepal has suspended international flights until July 5.
Norwegian Air will resume flights on 76 routes halted during the coronavirus outbreak and bring back into service 12 of its mothballed aircraft on top of the eight already flying, as European countries reopen and demand for flights rises.
Airlines have been hit hard by the pandemic, which put a stop to most international travel, leading many to seek help from governments.
In comments reported by Reuters, chief executive Jacob Schram said:
We’re getting back in the air with more planes and we’re reopening many of the routes which our customers have requested.
More than 300 pilots and 600 cabin crew from the company’s bases in Norway will operate 20 aircraft, with about 200 pilots and 400 cabin crew being brought back to work. Norwegian furloughed or laid off about 7,300 staff, roughly 90% of its employees, after the Covid-19 outbreak.
After three months of empty squares and alleys, and gondoliers stranded on dry land, Venice is welcoming tourists back to the city. This photo gallery documents the scenes as Italy relaxes its lockdown.
Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez announced late on Tuesday that he has been diagnosed with the coronavirus. In a televised speech, he said:
As president of the nation and a responsible citizen, I want to communicate that during the weekend I started to feel some discomfort and today I was diagnosed as having been infected with Covid-19.
Eight British Muslims detained in India for more than two months face criminal charges after getting caught up in a court case in which thousands of foreign Muslims are accused of violating the coronavirus lockdown.
The men allege they are victims of religious persecution by the Indian government, which is led by the rightwing Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party (BJP), known for its anti-Muslim agenda. According to a petition filed to Delhi high court on 20 May, their treatment is “tantamount to illegal detention”.
More than 2,500 foreign Muslims, from 35 different countries, are being charged in the case. Last week, the Indian government agreed to release and deport detained foreign Muslims but only if they accepted guilt for visa violations and “wilfully” disobeying lockdown orders.
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Morning from London. This is Frances Perraudin and I’ll be bringing you the latest news from the coronavirus pandemic around the globe. If you think there’s anything I’m missing, please email me on frances.perraudin@theguardian.com or contact me on twitter @fperraudin.
India coronavirus toll sees record jump of 2,000 dead
India’s official coronavirus death toll leaped by more than 2,000 to reach 11,903 on Wednesday as Germany advised its nationals to consider leaving the country because of growing health risks, AFP reports.
Mumbai revised its toll up by 862 to 3,165 because of unspecified accounting “discrepancies” while New Delhi recorded a record rise of more than 400 deaths, taking its total to more than 1,800.
It was not immediately clear how many of the deaths had occurred in the past 24 hours and how many were from adjustments over a longer period.
Updated
Wednesday briefing: Ardern blasts ‘failure’ of New Zealand quarantine
New Zealand’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, has brought in the defence force to oversee the quarantine of new arrivals after two women who were allowed to travel freely turned out to have coronavirus and came into “close contact” with at least 320 other people. Ardern, who weeks ago announced New Zealand was free of coronavirus, said it was an “unacceptable failure … It should never have happened and it cannot be repeated.”
Families have hailed as “a game-changer” how a campaign by the footballer Marcus Rashford on free school meals shamed Boris Johnson into announcing a “summer food fund” for children in need in England. Families entitled to the meals will receive a one-off voucher at the end of the school term to spend in supermarkets, worth £15 a week for the six-week break. It has emerged that more than 100,000 carers have had to rely on food banks during lockdown.
More than nine in 10 universities have told a Universities UK poll they will provide some in-person teaching at the start of term this year. The survey also suggests 87% are planning to provide in-person sporting, fitness and wellbeing activities. Healthcare charities have called for clarity over when there will be an end to coronavirus shielding in England, which affects roughly 2.2 million “clinically extremely vulnerable” people who are having to stay isolated. The government has said it is considering “next steps” for the programme beyond the end of June and a final decision has not yet been made.
