Italy records biggest daily infection rise since May
Italy registered 947 new infections on Friday, the biggest daily Covid case rise since 14 May, when the country was still in lockdown.
The total number of cases is now up to 257,065. Nine more people have died with the virus and the death toll now stands at 35,427.
Last week the government obliged holidaymakers returning from Greece, Malta, Spain and Croatia to be tested for the virus. Rome said it was also considering adding France to the list.
“There is continued talk of a second wave of the virus, but in fact the first wave is actually not over yet,’’ the health ministry consultant Walter Ricciardi said on Friday. “We knew that easing [lockdown] measures would have consequences.’’
The number of new infections in recent days seems to be the price Italy is paying in order to put the economy back on track, especially in the tourism sector.
Back in May, as the country began to emerge from lockdown, authorities were obliged to strike a balance between the need to reopen public spaces and national borders, fundamental for economic recovery, and the obligation to safeguard public health. But what if Rome went too far?
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Britain’s demand for cheap food could be fuelling the spread of the coronavirus in its factories, a leading health expert has warned, as analysis shows nearly 1,500 cases across the country.
Cramped conditions in some factories and in low-paid workers’ homes, spurred by the UK’s desire for cheaply produced food, may have driven infection rates in the sector, according to David Nabarro, a World Health Organization special envoy on Covid-19.
Photograph: John Angerson/Alamy
In the early stages of the pandemic, the UK avoided the scale of Covid-19 outbreaks seen in meat factories and other food processing plants in countries such as the US. But a Guardian analysis suggests that reported UK outbreaks of the disease are now increasing in frequency, with examples of cases spreading into the wider community.
You can read the full report by my colleagues Kevin Rawlinson and Henry McDonald here:
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Opportunistic illegal loggers have devastated indigenous lands in Brazil after tourists were banned from the trails on Monte Pascoal to curb the spread of coronavirus in March.
Usually, some of the about 120 inhabitants of Pe do Monte village in the northeastern state of Bahia serve as guides on the mountain, earning money to live on and to help protect the forests around them.
When community leaders closed off the village, they knew they would be forgoing vital income, but did not expect that illegal loggers would move in.
The indigenous leader Toho Pataxo told the Thomas Reuters Foundation:
We used to have five trails, but four of them have been deforested. We are looking into the possibility of opening new trails [after the pandemic], so that tourism doesn’t stop. If tourist income stops, our whole community stops.”
Official government figures show more than 380 indigenous people have died from the illness so far. But indigenous rights groups believe that number is underreported – Brazil’s Association of Indigenous People estimates it to be closer to 680 deaths.
Indigenous rights groups and health bodies like the World Health Organization have warned that indigenous communities are especially vulnerable to the virus, for reasons ranging from lack of healthcare access to invasions of their land by loggers.
At the start of the outbreak in Brazil, Funai, the government’s indigenous affairs agency, suspended all authorisation for outsiders to enter indigenous areas.
In Pe do Monte, Toho believes illegal loggers took advantage of the fact that the tourism freeze emptied the trails of possible witnesses to their crimes.
“There were trees over 200 years old on those trails, but [loggers] cut them all down. They devastated our trails,” he said.
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Prolonged school closures in Africa could set back the life chances of a generation of children and deepen inequality, according to the World Health Organization. Hundreds of millions of children have been out of school across Africa for six months, following lockdown measures adopted across the continent.
A WHO survey of 39 countries in sub-Saharan Africa found that just six countries have fully reopened schools, which remain completely closed in 14 countries. A further 19 countries’ schools are partially reopen for exams.
“We are very keen for schools to reopen as soon as possible,” the director of the WHO Africa region, Dr Matshidiso Moeti, told the Guardian. “This is an issue that could deepen the disparities that already exist. Education is vital; we must make sure that we contain Covid-19 but not damage the future of our countries,” she said.
Economic and gender inequalities, as well as those between rural and urban areas, were at risk of widening during the pandemic.
“I know how important educating kids from disadvantaged backgrounds is and how transformative it can be,” she said. “Especially for girls. I’m dead keen on them returning to school. We know how critical it is for their health and their survival.”
The WHO has urged governments to adapt lockdown measures from being state-wide to local where possible, and explore innovative solutions using technology. Countries should also consider outdoor education in some circumstances, Moeti said. “This is one of the few cases where you can possibly find it acceptable for kids to learn outside, which is not ideal at all, but in this case, kids learning out in the open air while we build up the public health capacities to be able to manage the situation is very important.”
Cases of the coronavirus have slowed in Africa over the last two weeks, falling by a quarter compared with the previous two weeks. More than 1.1m infections have been confirmed on the continent, with almost 900,000 recoveries, while almost 27,000 people have died.
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Venezuela has closed entry from Colombia at the most-used crossing along the two countries’ border, Colombian migration authorities said.
Colombian authorities said they were informed by Venezuelan counterparts that the Simon Bolivar bridge connecting the cities of Cúcuta and San Antonio would be closed due to the high number of recently arrived Venezuelans who are in quarantine on the other side.
The Venezuelan government did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
Colombia is a top destination for Venezuelans fleeing the political, economic and social crisis in their country. Some 1.7 million Venezuelans reside in Colombia.
Since March, when Colombia declared a national lockdown to combat the coronavirus, around 100,000 Venezuelans have returned home.
Another 40,000 are waiting to cross the border, according to Colombian migration authorities, amid weekly limits by Venezuelan authorities on the number of citizens allowed to return.
“We are concerned for the health of everyone along the border and as such we have decided to suspend transport of Venezuelan citizens to Norte de Santander province,” Colombia’s migration director, Juan Francisco Espinosa, said.
Colombian authorities had been bussing Venezuelans who wanted to return home from the interior of the country to Cúcuta, but would stop to avoid border bottlenecks and possible health emergencies, Espinosa said.
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Kenya’s police have teargassed protesters holding peaceful demonstrations against alleged corruption including the theft of supplies for the fight against Covid-19, Associated Press reports.
At least 12 demonstrators from a group of 100 protesting in different parts of Nairobi, the capital, were arrested by police, said the central business district police chief, Mark Wanjala.
Picketing and protesting are rights guaranteed by the Kenyan constitution but police argue that they dispersed Friday’s demonstrations because of concerns that large gatherings could lead to the spread of the coronavirus.
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