Spain calls on army to fight virus as WHO signals slowdown
MADRID, Spain — Spain said Tuesday it will call in the army to try to help curb the spread of the coronavirus as parts of Europe and Asia battle new surges, while data from the UN health agency suggested the pace of transmission was easing in many parts of the world.
Governments have been ramping up efforts to contain the disease, which has claimed the lives of almost 814,000 people and infected at least 23 million since late last year.
World Health Organization data said fatality and infection rates were easing in most regions, notably in the hard-hit Americas, except Southeast Asia and the eastern Mediterranean.
In Africa, WHO regional director Matshidiso Moeti said new cases were declining after the continent passed "what seems to have been a peak".
But Health Minister Zweli Mkhize of hard-hit South Africa warned that "our biggest worry is whether in fact this is the first surge and there might be another one", pointing to the latest developments in Spain.
One of the worst affected countries in Europe, Spain is to use 2,000 soldiers trained in tracking to help regions identify those who have been exposed to infected people.
"We can't let the pandemic once again take control of our lives... we must take control and halt this second curve," said Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez.
Thousands of miles away, South Korea ordered the closure of all schools and kindergartens in the greater Seoul region and a return to online learning.
'Alarming emergence of mass infections'
South Korea's move -- coupled with Mexico's launch Monday of a nationwide televised schooling programme -- underlined the effect on young people of a pandemic now dragging into its ninth month.
UN estimates say at least 60 percent of the global student population has been impacted by school closures across more than 140 countries.
The challenges of reopening schools safely were highlighted as the University of Alabama reported close to a thousand positive coronavirus tests since term started last week.
Although fatality rates have been falling, the WHO said it recorded more than 1.7 million new coronavirus cases and some 39,000 new deaths in the week to August 23.
That represented however a five-percent decrease in new cases globally and a 12-percent drop in new deaths compared with the week before.
In some parts of the world, people feel too desperate to keep up the virus fight.
Still staggering from the effects of a massive detonation that devastated capital Beirut on August 4, Lebanese service sector businesses said they would defy a new lockdown order despite record case numbers.
Tony Ramy, who heads the syndicate of owners of restaurants, cafes, nightclubs and pastry shops, urged owners to defy an "arbitrary and demagogic decision to close down" for two weeks.
In Gaza, the Hamas government of the Israeli-blockaded strip announced a 48-hour curfew after a cluster of cases was identified, prompting a rush on bakeries.
Bolt in quarantine
The latest high-profile case was sprint legend Usain Bolt, who was in quarantine Monday after undergoing a test for the virus that Jamaican media reported had come back positive.
The retired 100 and 200 metres world-record holder said on Twitter that he was "trying to be responsible" by going into isolation, but he did not confirm the result.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro's son Flavio also tested positive, saying he was taking the anti-malaria drug chloroquine, even though medical studies have not found it to be effective against the virus.
But there was good news for actor Antonio Banderas who tweeted that he was "cured" after three weeks in isolation over his 60th birthday.
EU trade commissioner Phil Hogan meanwhile was battling for his job after accusations he ignored coronavirus restrictions to attend a golf society dinner in his home country Ireland.
"It is abundantly clear that the event should not have been held and that I should not have attended," Hogan wrote.
Months of lockdowns to stem the virus spread have seen millions lose their jobs and swathes of businesses shut their doors amid fears of a second wave.
On Tuesday, American Airlines said it would lay off around 19,000 workers on October 1 if US lawmakers fail to vote through new support for the limping sector.
Earlier, Australian airline Qantas had said it would cut almost 2,500 more jobs on top of 6,000 already announced, while Finnair said it would slash 1,000 posts.
And Virgin Atlantic said its creditors had approved a rescue worth £1.2-billion ($1.6 billion or 1.3 billion euros).
The race to bring a vaccine to market hotted up still further as Britain-based pharma giant AstraZeneca said it had begun a clinical trial of a drug designed both to prevent infection and treat people with COVID-19.
The drug is being tested on 48 healthy people aged between 18 and 55, the company said, hailing "an important milestone" in the fight against COVID-19.
Follow this page for updates on a mysterious pneumonia outbreak that has struck dozens of people in China.
New Zealand Prime Minister Chris Hipkins says on Sunday that he had contracted COVID-19, testing positive at a key point in his flailing campaign for re-election.
Hipkins saYS on his official social media feed that he would need to isolate for up to five days -- less than two weeks before his country's general election.
The leader of the centre-left Labour Party said he started to experience cold symptoms on Saturday and had cancelled most of his weekend engagements. — AFP
The World Health Organization and US health authorities say Friday they are closely monitoring a new variant of COVID-19, although the potential impact of BA.2.86 is currently unknown.
The WHO classified the new variant as one under surveillance "due to the large number (more than 30) of spike gene mutations it carries", it wrote in a bulletin about the pandemic late Thursday.
So far, the variant has only been detected in Israel, Denmark and the United States. — AFP
The World Health Organization says on Friday that the number of new COVID-19 cases reported worldwide rose by 80% in the last month, days after designating a new "variant of interest".
The WHO declared in May that Covid is no longer a global health emergency, but has warned that the virus will continue to circulate and mutate, causing occasional spikes in infections, hospitalisations and deaths.
In its weekly update, the UN agency said that nations reported nearly 1.5 million new cases from July 10 to August 6, an 80% increase compared to the previous 28 days. — AFP
The head of US intelligence says that there was no evidence that the COVID-19 virus was created in the Chinese government's Wuhan research lab.
In a declassified report, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) says they had no information backing recent claims that three scientists at the lab were some of the very first infected with COVID-19 and may have created the virus themselves.
Drawing on intelligence collected by various member agencies of the US intelligence community (IC), the ODNI report says some scientists at the Wuhan lab had done genetic engineering of coronaviruses similar to COVID-19. — AFP
Boris Johnson deliberately misled MPs over Covid lockdown-breaking parties in Downing Street when he was prime minister, a UK parliament committee ruled on Thursday.
The cross-party Privileges Committee said Johnson, 58, would have been suspended as an MP for 90 days for "repeated contempts (of parliament) and for seeking to undermine the parliamentary process".
But he avoided any formal sanction by his peers in the House of Commons by resigning as an MP last week.
In his resignation statement last Friday, Johnson pre-empted publication of the committee's conclusions, claiming a political stitch-up, even though the body has a majority from his own party.
He was unrepentant again on Thursday, accusing the committee of being "anti-democratic... to bring about what is intended to be the final knife-thrust in a protracted political assassination".
Calling it "beneath contempt", he said it was "for the people of this to decide who sits in parliament, not Harriet Harman", the veteran opposition Labour MP who chaired the seven-person committee. — AFP
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