France’s new infections more than 2,000 higher than previous record; Italy registers 37,809 new cases; Russia says Covid was main cause in 5,199 cases. This blog is now closed
- Follow today’s coronavirus blog here
- Experts urge caution over Denmark’s mink coronavirus scare
- UK closes Denmark travel corridor over mink Covid scare
- UK and others look for lessons from Slovakia mass testing scheme
- EasyJet cuts more flights and sells planes after new Covid controls
- UK coronavirus updates – live
NSW has reported one new case of locally transmitted Covid-19 in the 24 hours to 8pm last night.
Four cases were also reported in overseas travellers in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of cases in NSW to 4,270.
Dr Michael Douglas provides a #COVID19 update for Saturday 7 November 2020. pic.twitter.com/T2q5LFhLy1
The International Monetary Fund [IMF] on Friday approved a 42-month, US$370m loan program for conflict-ravaged Afghanistan as it tries to deal with the coronavirus pandemic.
The loan aims to help stabilise the country’s economy, shore up its Covid-19 response and catalyse donor support, the IMF said in a statement.
Europe’s number of coronavirus-linked deaths has surged past 300,000 and its number of infections surpassed 12 million, according to an AFP tally from official sources.
The region’s 300,688 recorded deaths is second only to the 408,841 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Brazil reported 18,862 additional confirmed cases of the virus in the past 24 hours, and 279 deaths from Covid-19, the health ministry said.
The South American country has now registered 5,631,181 cases since the pandemic began, while the official death toll has risen to 162,015, according to ministry data, in the world’s most fatal outbreak outside the United States.
Another day of 00, with zero cases and zero deaths.
Well done, Victoria
Over the coming days, and as we head to COVID normal, heads up that there will be changes to the data reported in this tweet. https://t.co/4BEB35r9Jj
Monday will see the resumption of direct flights from New Zealand – the first international flights into Melbourne since 30 June. Ahead of the resumption of international arrivals, a long-awaited report has suggested improvements to the state’s quarantine program, AAP reports.
In the US, a Missouri election judge who came to work despite testing positive for Covid-19 died in her sleep after a 15-hour shift at the polls, the director of her county’s election office said Friday.
The woman worked election day as an election judge supervisor at Memorial Hall in Blanchette Park in the St Louis suburb of St Charles. Officials don’t yet know if the virus was the cause of death. County officials didn’t release her name, citing privacy laws.
Common cold antibodies could yield clues to Covid-19 behaviour, Nancy Lapid at Reuters writes:
Among people who were never infected with the new coronavirus, a few adults – and many children – may have antibodies that can neutralise the virus, researchers reported on Friday in Science.
Among 302 such adults, 16 (5.3%) had antibodies, likely generated during infections with “common cold” coronaviruses, that reacted to a specific region of the spike protein on the new virus called the S2 subunit. Among 48 children and adolescents, 21 (43.8%) had these antibodies. In test tube experiments, blood serum from both older and younger uninfected individuals with cross-reactive antibodies could neutralise the new coronavirus. That was not the case with serum from study participants who lacked these antibodies.
In Australia, Victoria has achieved a week without new cases or deaths. It follows the state’s second virus wave, which resulted in more than 18,000 infections and 800 deaths, and resulted in the state being locked down.
But steps towards normal living are about to gain pace with Covid-19 restrictions further easing and flights to resume from New Zealand. The Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, is expected to announce another relaxation of rules on Sunday, including the removal of the “ring of steel” around Melbourne which currently prevents travel between metropolitan Melbourne and regional areas.
The city’s residents will no longer be confined to a 25-kilometre radius from home and allowed to travel to regional Victoria. Travel freedom will expand again when the NewSouth Wales border reopens to Victorians on 23 November. Andrews said on Friday that his Sunday announcement would include a plan for the rest of the month.
“They will be big steps, they’ll get us much closer to normal than we’ve been for six or seven months, which is very significant,” he said.
Portugal’s president on Friday declared a state of health emergency that will come into force next week to allow the government to impose further coronavirus restrictions.
In a televised appearance, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa said he had just signed a decree “relating to a second state of emergency” since the start of the pandemic that will last at least two weeks.
Europe’s number of coronavirus-linked deaths has surged past 300,000 and its number of infections surpassed 12 million, according to an AFP tally from official sources.
The region’s 300,688 recorded deaths is second only to the 408,841 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Authorities in Slovakia say they hope a nationwide programme in which two-thirds of the country’s population were tested for Covid-19 in just two days last weekend will halve the number of cases of the virus in the country.
The Slovak testing programme has drawn interest from across Europe, as debates continue about whether or not blanket testing is the best way to fight coronavirus. A Downing Street team travelled to Slovakia last weekend to witness the testing, keen to draw lessons before a mass testing programme due to be launched in Liverpool this weekend.
Related: UK and others look for lessons from Slovakia's Covid mass-testing project
Good evening from London. I’m Lucy Campbell, I’ll be bringing you all the latest global developments on the coronavirus pandemic for the next few hours. Please feel free to get in touch with me as I work if you have a story or tips to share! Your thoughts are always welcome.
Email: lucy.campbell@theguardian.com
Twitter: @lucy_campbell_
Here’s a roundup of some of the key global coronavirus developments over the last few hours:
France registered a record 60,486 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, following the previous high of 58,046 on Thursday, health ministry data showed.
The ministry also reported 828 new deaths from coronavirus, including 398 deaths in hospitals over the past 24 hours, and 430 deaths in retirement homes over several days.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Friday reported 117,988 new coronavirus cases, taking the country’s total caseload to 9,581,770.
The number of deaths also increased by 1,135 to 234,264.
Portugal’s parliament has approved a new state of emergency starting on Monday to fight the spread of coronavirus, which has put the healthcare system under pressure.
The initial state of emergency was declared in March and lasted six weeks, restricting the movement of people and closing thousands of businesses.
Russia recorded 9,798 deaths linked to suspected or confirmed Covid-19 cases in September, data from the state statistics service shows.
Of these deaths, coronavirus was recorded as the main cause in 5,199 cases, Rosstat said.
Latvia will go into a four-week lockdown beginning on 9 November to slow the spread of Covid-19, which has accelerated in recent weeks in the Baltic nation.
The country reported 367 new cases on Friday, bringing the total number to 7,119 with 87 deaths. It had only 2,086 total cases on 1 October.
Italy has registered 37,809 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the country’s highest ever daily tally, the health ministry said today. The figure was more than 3,000 up on Thursday’s tally of 34,505.
The ministry also reported 446 Covid-related deaths, up one from the 445 the previous day.
As Canada battles its second wave of coronavirus infections, public health officials in the country’s western region are growing concerned as cases surge to new daily records.
For much of the pandemic, high caseloads and fatalities have been concentrated in the two most populous provinces, Ontario and Quebec.
Singapore’s first cruise to nowhere set sail today. The cruises, classed as round trips, are open only to its residents and sail for a few days in waters just off the city-state.
They follow flights to nowhere in some parts of Asia that take off and land at the same airport.
The Kremlin has said it is early to judge how effective Russia’s coronavirus restrictions are without lockdowns, as the country reported a record daily number of new Covid-19 infections.
Speaking to reporters on Friday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the increase in coronavirus cases to a daily high of 20,582 was alarming and that authorities would take action depending on how the situation developed.
New coronavirus restrictions came into force in Italy on Friday but from pavements dotted with coffee drinkers to lines of striking taxi drivers, the picture on the streets was different from the ghostly scenes of the first lockdown, Reuters reports.
The restrictions, which divide the country into three zones according to the severity of the latest outbreak, are less severe than the blanket measures imposed when the pandemic first took hold in March.
Sweden registered 4,697 new coronavirus cases on Friday, the highest number since the start of the pandemic, health agency statistics show.
The increase compares with a high of 4,034 new daily cases recorded in the country, which has shunned lockdowns throughout the pandemic, on Thursday.
Germany’s biggest airline is to start trialling rapid pre-flight coronavirus antigen tests next week, which passengers will need to pass in order to fly.
Only those testing negative or able to provide evidence of a negative test within the previous 48 hours will be allowed to board, Lufthansa said on Friday.
Theatres, cinemas, training centres and swimming pools are to be closed in Norway’s capital, Oslo, to contain the spread of the coronavirus, city authorities have said.
Under the new measures, bars and restaurants will also no longer be able to serve alcohol.
Austria’s health minister has warned that the country’s Covid-19 intensive care beds could be full within two weeks because of the “much stronger, more serious” second wave of coronavirus infections.
There was a sharp drop to 6,464 new infections within 24 hours from a record 7,416 the day before, but Rudolf Anschober said the number was still alarming.
Aspirin, a drug commonly used as a blood thinner, will be evaluated as a possible treatment for Covid-19 in one of the UK’s biggest trials looking into a range of potential treatments for the illness.
Patients infected by the novel coronavirus are at a higher risk of blood clots because of hyper-reactive platelets, the cell fragments that help stop bleeding. Aspirin is an antiplatelet agent and can reduce the risk of clots, the Recovery trial’s website said on Friday.
The World Health Organization is looking at biosecurity in countries where there are mink farms after Denmark ordered a nationwide cull of the animals because of a widespread coronavirus outbreak among them.
Maria van Kerkhove, WHO’s technical lead for Covid-19, said the transmission of the virus between animals and humans was “a concern”.
In Germany, the country’s disease control agency has registered 21,506 new infections over the last 24 hours, and 166 new deaths. With the average age of those who have caught the virus on the rise, there are growing concerns about the number of vulnerable people falling ill with Covid-19.
The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care is currently doubling every 10 days, meaning German hospitals could reach a critical point in about a month’s time.
The World Health Organization is facing renewed pleas to allow Taiwan to participate in a key international meeting amid fears its exclusion could jeopardise efforts to rein in the coronavirus pandemic.
As many parts of the world are reeling from surging numbers of Covid-19 infections and deaths, the WHO is due on Monday to resume its main annual meeting, which was cut short in May.
Poland has reported a record 445 new coronavirus-related deaths on Friday, as the healthcare system battles shortages in hospital beds, equipment and medics. The country also reported 27,086 new Covid-19 cases, close to Thursday’s record of 27,143.
The health ministry said, as of Friday, Covid-19 patients occupied 19,479 hospital beds and were using 1,703 ventilators, of an available 29,407 and 2,238 respectively.
The Kremlin said on Friday it was too early to judge how effective coronavirus restrictions in Russia had been in the absence of lockdowns as the country reported a record daily number of new Covid-19 infections.
Speaking to reporters on a conference call, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that an increase in coronavirus cases to a daily high of 20,582 was alarming and that authorities would take action depending on how the situation developed.
In Denmark, the State Serum Institute, which deals with infectious diseases, has found 214 people infected with mink-related versions of coronavirus since June.
Its website reported the findings on 5 November. It is one strain of the mutated coronavirus, which has prompted Denmark to cull its entire herd of mink. That strain has, however, been found in only 12 people and on five mink farms so far.
Romania will impose a nationwide nighttime curfew and close all schools for 30 days from Monday after seeing the number of daily coronavirus infections double in two weeks, the government said on Friday.
Romania has some of the European Union’s least developed healthcare infrastructure and is witnessing one of the highest fatality rates in the bloc’s eastern wing.
More than half of all Spain’s Covid deaths happened in the country’s care homes during the beginning of March and the end of June, according to a government report seen by El País.
The document says that a total of 20,268 people died in homes for older people and people with disabilities between the beginning of March and 23 June this year. Some 10,364 were tested for the virus while the remaining 9,904 died showing symptoms compatible with Covid-19.
The report identifies 30 factors that contributed to the “perfect storm” that ravaged the country’s care homes, including a lack of staff, the highly contagious nature of the virus, and the “mistaken impression” that older people could face the situation alone.
Spain remains the western European country with the most cases of the virus, logging 1,306,316 cases by Thursday evening. It recorded 368 new deaths the same day – the highest daily death toll to date in the second wave. To date, the country has recorded a total of 38,486 deaths.
The German insurance giant Allianz on Friday reported a slight rise in third-quarter profit, though revenues declined and it did not update its full-year outlook, as the company weathered the challenge of the pandemic.
The Munich-based insurer made a net profit to the end of September of €2.1bn ($2.5bn), up 5.9% year-on-year.
Swathes of Italy return to coronavirus lockdown on Friday as the resurgent pandemic continued its march through Europe and reached record levels in the US.
Five coronavirus “red zones” in Italy’s north – plus Calabria in the country’s “toe” – will shutter non-essential businesses, affecting 16 million people.
Hungary will try to avoid closing schools as long as possible but some medical operations will have to be rescheduled as hospital beds are filling up with coronavirus patients, prime minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday.
Based on current predictions, Orban said, Hungary will need 2,240 intensive beds with ventilators for patients by 21 November, and 4,480 intensive beds by 10 December.
“This is around the limit of our capacities … as this implies 30,000 to 32,000 coronavirus patients on hospital beds,” Orbán told state radio.
“We could still manage that but we have made decisions today … that if infections go beyond this limit there should be designated places … outside hospitals if needed, where patients can get appropriate care.”
Orban said a decision about rescheduling some operations will come “within days or within hours” to free up hospital beds. Hungary closed dance clubs and imposed a night-time curfew earlier this week to curb a rapid spread of coronavirus infections.
Trying to minimise further harm to the recession-hit economy, Orbán’s nationalist government has so far refrained from imposing strict lockdown measures.
Hello everyone. I am taking over the Guardian’s live feed, bringing you the latest global updates on coronavirus. Please do get in touch with me while I work to share any comments, thoughts or news tips. I am available via any of the contact methods below. Thanks so much.
Twitter: @sloumarsh
Instagram: sarah_marsh_journalist
Email: sarah.marsh@theguardian.com
That’s it from me, Helen Sullivan, for today. To borrow a phrase from Jon Stewart, here is today’s moment of zen:
Anderson Cooper just called Trump 'an obese turtle on his back flailing in the sun'
Related: When will we know the US election result?
Here are the key developments from the last few hours:
We now have confirmation: The United States has again recorded more cases in 24 hours than any country over the course of the pandemic, with 120,000 infections confirmed for Thursday 5 November according to Johns Hopkins University.
The country also recorded more than 1,000 deaths for the fourth time this week, with 1,200 people reported dead in the last 24 hours. The previous record for cases, also held by the US, was 102,000 the day before.
There are currently 9,608,922 cases in the United States: the highest infections total of any country worldwide.
The British government must scrap plans to deport foreign rough sleepers and relaunch the “everyone in” strategy to protect thousands of homeless people from the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic, charities and the mayor of London have said.
As temperatures drop and a new England-wide lockdown threatens to force more people on to the streets through unemployment, the mayor, Sadiq Khan, national homelessness charities and human rights groups are urging the home secretary, Priti Patel, to protect foreign nationals who make up almost half of the capital’s rough sleeping population:
Related: Charities urge return of homelessness scheme in English lockdown
Carmakers around the world have been battered by the coronavirus crisis, with many relying on government help, as it slammed the global economy into reverse and forced people to stay at home.
But Toyota last week reported both global production and sales hit record highs for September, marking the first gains in nine months.
Toyota on Friday almost doubled its full-year forecasts, saying sales and production were recovering quickly from the coronavirus pandemic, which has shredded the global auto market this year, AFP reports.
Japan’s top car maker now projects net profit of 1.42 trillion yen ($137 billion) for the fiscal year to March 2021, up from an earlier estimate of 730 billion yen. It said full-year sales are now expected to hit 26 trillion yen, against a previous estimate of 24 trillion yen.
When hotel quarantine resumes in the state of Victoria, Australia, police should be on site 24 hours a day and infection control experts should be “embedded” in each facility, an inquiry set up to examine the system’s previous failings has recommended.
The inquiry’s interim report, released on Friday, also suggests all staff working in quarantine hotels should be properly paid “with terms and conditions that address the possible need to self-isolate in the event of an infection or possible infection” of coronavirus:
Related: Victorian hotel quarantine inquiry calls for police to be on site 24 hours a day
Beijing on Thursday banned foreign arrivals from France and a host of other countries, the latest in a growing number of entry bans as China closes itself off from a world still battling the coronavirus pandemic.
AFP: Covid-19 first emerged in central China late last year, but Beijing has largely brought its outbreak under control through tight travel restrictions and stringent health measures for anyone entering the country.
The World Health Organization is facing renewed pleas to allow Taiwan to participate in a key international meeting amid fears its exclusion could jeopardise efforts to rein in the coronavirus pandemic, AFP reports.
As many parts of the world are reeling from surging numbers of Covid-19 infections and deaths, the WHO is due Monday to resume its main annual meeting, which was cut short in May.
I don’t mean to besmirch this blog’s good name with US election content too often, but in case you’re wondering, this is when we just might know the result (Georgia might be called on Thursday night in the US – if Biden manages to overtake Trump’s narrow margin, we could have a winner):
Five states have yet to be called: Alaska, Georgia, Nevada, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Several news organizations, including the Associated Press and Fox News’ decision desk, have called Arizona for Joe Biden. The Trump campaign is arguing, however, that call was made too early.
When will we know the US election result?
(maybe tonight) https://t.co/wo1MQKiEgM
Related: When will we know the US election result?
Greece will go back into lockdown from Saturday for three weeks to battle a second wave of the coronavirus, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced.
AFP: “It was a difficult decision” but “measures must be taken for three weeks to overcome this second wave”, he told a videoconference on Thursday.
The full story on Denmark being removed from the UK’s travel corridor now:
AFP is reporting, citing Johns Hopkins, that the United States will again break the global high for cases reported in 24 hours on Thursday, beating its own Wednesday record by 20,000 cases, with 123,085 new infections confirmed.
#UPDATE More than 120,000 #coronavirus cases reported in the US in the past 24 hours, smashing a daily record set the day before, according Johns Hopkins University.
The country reported 123,085 new infections and 1,226 more deaths pic.twitter.com/Gu91px63yY
A protest against Slovenia’s coronavirus shutdown sparked some of the most violent scenes the country has seen in years, AFP reports, as police moved in with teargas and water cannons to disperse the crowd.
The rally in the capital Ljubljana, organised by activists calling themselves the Slovenian branch of cyber group Anonymous, started late in the afternoon and led to several injuries and arrests as the protesters clashed with police.
The UK’s secretary of state for transport, Grant Schapps, has removed Demnark from the country’s “travel corridor”, which means all arrivals from Denmark will need to self-isolate for 14 days, starting at 4am Friday morning.
The reason for the removal is the spread of coronavirus to people from an outbreak among mink on mink farms in the country, Shapps wrote in a statement:
I have taken the swift decision to urgently remove Denmark from the government’s travel corridor list as a precautionary measure given recent developments
Passengers arriving into the UK from Denmark from 4am on Friday 6 November 2020 (today) will need to self-isolate for 14 days by law before following domestic restrictions now in force.
I’ve taken the urgent decision tonight to remove DENMARK from the travel corridor list immediately given developments. Passengers arriving into the UK from DENMARK from 4am on 6 November 2020 will need to self-isolate for 14 days. Read more here https://t.co/ni9VhL7B67
The World Health Organization in Europe on Thursday said it was seeing an “explosion” of coronavirus cases in the region and warned of a “tough time” ahead as mortality rates rose.
“We do see an explosion.... in the sense it only takes a couple of days to have over the European region an increase of one million cases,” WHO’s regional director for Europe Hans Kluge told AFP.
Our new US Elections blog is live, helmed by the incredible Maanvi Singh:
Related: US election live: TV networks cut away as Trump lies again about result
Billions of pounds worth of trade with the European Union will face “significant disruption” on 1 January, regardless of whether a trade deal is agreed, Whitehall’s spending watchdog has concluded.
The National Audit Office (NAO) said crucial IT systems have yet to be tested and transit areas for lorries are not ready as the government attempts to prepare new border controls for the end of the Brexit transition period. The planned controls, which had already been rated “high risk”, have been further hampered by the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report released today:
Related: UK-EU trade faces major disruption even with deal, say auditors
It looks Thursday will again see the US break the global record for daily coronavirus cases – for the third time in eight days – with a possible 116,000 new cases reported in 24 hours (beating its own previous record by 14,000 cases).
This is from the Covid-tracking project – the Guardian relies on Johns Hopkins University, which updates a little later, so we’ll have confirmation then. But the two trackers are usually fairly aligned.
Our daily update is published. States reported record numbers of tests (1.5 million) and cases (116k). Hospitalizations continue their sharp rise. The death toll was 1,124. pic.twitter.com/z3gxwP6EaC
Meanwhile over at the US elections, where Trump has just made repeated false claims about the election in his first public address since the early hours of Wednesday morning:
Anderson Cooper just called Trump 'an obese turtle on his back flailing in the sun'
Uber Technologies Inc said on Thursday demand for its food-delivery service exploded in the latest quarter, but recovery in its global rides business is being held back by its most important market, the United States, Reuters reports.
Uber’s recovery will depend much on the course of the pandemic, with a resurgence in virus infections threatening to keep customers wary about returning outside or planning frequent trips far into 2021.
Ride bookings were dragged down by a slow recovery particularly on the US West Coast, while Europe and the Middle East recovered more steadily, down only 36% from last year.
Uber shares were down 2% in after-hours trading as an adjusted third-quarter EBITDA loss of $625 million was wider than analyst expectations of a $597 million loss, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.
Non-adjusted earnings per share came in at a loss of 62 cents, compared with a 65-cent loss estimated by analysts.
Gross bookings at Uber’s rides mobility unit recovered from their massive drop in April, but remained down 50% from last year on a constant currency basis. But unlike Uber’s other units, the rides segment delivered adjusted EBITDA of $245 million.
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic.
My name is Helen Sullivan and if you’re looking for Covid-19 news as it happens, you’re in the right place.
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