Coronavirus Global Updates, Nov 03: France sees record new cases; WHO warns it's 'not too late' to take critical action

Tue Nov 3 11:59:49 CAT 2020

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Zimbabwe COVID19 Update

COVID-19 update: As at 02 November 2020, Zimbabwe had 8 389 confirmed cases, including 7 939 recoveries and 245 deaths. 

Coronavirus: India Records 45,231 New COVID-19 Cases In A Day, Tally Crosses 82-Lakh Mark

Coronavirus News LIVE Updates: According to the Union Health Ministry, the active COVID-19 cases in country stand at 5,61,908.

India recorded 45,231 new cases of COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, government data shows. The daily case count was 3.6 per cent lower than yesterday's 46,963. With this, the country's overall coronavirus cases since January surged past 82.29 lakh.

In this period, 496 people lost their life to COVID-19, which has claimed more than 1.2 lakh lives till now. The country's Covid fatality rate has remained steady at 1.5 per cent.

India is the world's second-worst affected country after the United States, which has nearly 92 lakh infections and logged record 1 lakh-plus cases in a day yesterday.

Active cases dropped to 5.61 lakh as 53,285 people fought off COVID-19 over a one-day period. More than 75.4 lakh people have recovered from the coronavirus disease till now, pushing the recovery rate to 91.7 per cent.

Maharashtra - the worst affected state in the country with total 16.8 lakh cases with 44,024 deaths - logged the third highest daily Covid numbers at 5,369.

Health experts and scientists have warned of a rise in cases as winter sets in and people venture out amid the ongoing festival seaso

Here are the Updates on Coronavirus (COVID-19) Cases:

Festive Season, Laxity Caused Spike In Covid Cases In Delhi: Officials
Delhi has been reporting over 5,000 coronavirus cases everyday for the last seven days. This has prompted the Home Ministry to review the situation in the national capital. In a meeting chaired by Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, they discussed strategy for the city that is likely seeing a third surge in COVID-19 cases.

Officials who participated in the meeting attributed the surge in COVID-19 cases in Delhi to festivals, more movement of people and laxity in adhering to safe behaviour. They said the Home Ministry is putting efforts for more testing, contact-tracing and treatment, especially in critical zones.

The Home Ministry said people using Delhi Metro should strictly follow coronavirus safety guidelines. 

"Lab Reports Say Negative": Air India As 19 Test Positive On China Flight
Air India has reacted to reports that 19 Indians who flew to China's Wuhan - where the Covid pandemic originated in December last year - on a "Vande Bharat" flight on Friday tested positive for the virus on arrival. In a statement to NDTV Air India said it "strictly adheres to all safety protocols" and that all passengers on its Wuhan flight held negative Covid test reports from certified labs.

"All our passengers to Wuhan boarded the flight from Delhi with negative Covid reports from certified labs. Air India strictly adheres to all safety protocol laid down by regulatory bodies and conforms to requirements at destination airports," the statement said.

Chhattisgarh records 1,700 new COVID-19 cases, 58 deaths

With 1,700 new COVID-19 cases and 58 more deaths, Chhattisgarh's count rose to 1,90,513 and the count to 2,208 on Monday, a health official said.

The number of people who have recovered increased to 1,66,391 after 240 people were discharged from various hospitals, while 1,324 patients completed their home isolation

during the day, he said.

The state now has 21,914 active cases, the official informed.

Raipur district reported 102 new cases, taking its total count to 41,583, including 609 deaths.

France sees record new cases; WHO warns it's 'not too late' to take critical action

Indonesia has reported 2,973 new coronavirus cases in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of infections to 418,375, according to data from the country’s health ministry.

The country has also reported an additional 102 deaths, taking the total number of fatalities to 14,146.

The Indonesia Medical Association (IDI) said earlier on Tuesday that 161 doctors, including nine dentists, had died from the virus in the March to October period.

Hungary has recorded a record number of daily coronavirus infections and deaths.

In the last 24 hours, 84 Covid-19 patients have died, while coronavirus infections rose by 3,989 to 86,769, koronavirus.gov.hu  <https://koronavirus.gov.hu/cikkek/3989-fovel-emelkedett-beazonositott-fertozottek-szama-es-elhunyt-84-kronikus-beteg> said on Tuesday.

Hungary Today reports on the “black day”:

The death toll rose to 1,973, while 20,856 people have made a recovery.

There are 63,940 active infections, while 4,767 patients are hospitalised, 348 on ventilators.

Fully 30,984 people are in official home quarantine, while the number of tests carried out stands at 1,111,991.

Current restrictions in Hungary include:

*	controls at the border
*	restrictions on large events
*	wearing face masks obligatory in shops, public transport, cinemas, theatres, shopping malls, health-care and social-care facilities.
*	From Monday, mask-wearing will also be mandatory at entertainment venues, restaurants and catering facilities at sporting events.
*	Restaurants and entertainment venues must close after 11pm.
*	Visits to hospitals and nursing homes are banned.

Germany is hoping that a new antigen test will help it avoid closing nursing homes to visitors, as Europe grapples with a second wave of Covid infections.

The Press Association reports:

So-called antigen tests, which look for a specific protein on the virus, were first launched months ago. They are cheap and fast, but experts said at the time they are also less accurate than the standard PCR test, which detects even the tiniest genetic trace of the virus.

On Monday, Chancellor Angela Merkel said:

We have a new strategy. We can now basically perform rapid tests on visitors to nursing and care homes.

Nursing homes will receive up to 20 free monthly tests per resident. These can be used to test patients, staff and — crucially — visiting relatives, who might be unwitting carriers of Covid-19, posing a potentially devastating threat. Merkel said:

Health insurers will cover the costs for a certain number of visitors each month. That’s huge progress in terms of protection.

Germany has one of the world’s oldest populations. More than 24 million people are 60 or older and about 900,000 people live in nursing homes. A further 2.5 million younger people have serious disabilities.

That means almost 30% of Germany’s population of 83 million are particularly vulnerable to the virus, Merkel said.

Germany has reported about 550,000 coronavirus cases — less than half the number recorded in Britain, Spain and France. Germany’s confirmed virus death toll of 10,669 is also a quarter of Britain’s.

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In the UK, where a lockdown is coming into force on Thursday, retailers, hairdressers and restaurants in England are extending opening hours and seeing their strongest bookings in months.

Retail and hospitality in England open extra hours before lockdown

International tourist arrivals to Spain fell 87% year-on-year in September, official data showed on Tuesday, as restrictions related to a steep increase in coronavirus infections dissuaded many from travelling.

Reuters reports that over the first nine months of the year, some 16.8 million foreign tourists visited Spain, around 75% fewer than in the same period of 2019, the National Statistics Institute (INE) said.

Tourists spent 90% less in September than in the same month a year ago, INE said.

In France one Parisian is getting infected with Covid-19 every 30 seconds, while every 15 minutes there is a Parisian arriving in hospital as a result of the disease, health minister Olivier Véran said on Tuesday.

Reuters reports that Véran made the comments to RTL Radio in response to demands by Paris mayor, Anne Hidalgo, to open up small bookshops and other smaller stores to try to keep commerce and social activity ticking over despite a new lockdown in France.

Véran said any such move was too risky given the high Covid-19 infection rates in the French capital. He said:

She cannot ignore the fact that every 15 minutes, in the hospitals of Paris, there is someone ill who has been hospitalised with Covid. She cannot ignore the fact that every 30 seconds, there is a Parisian who has been contaminated.

We want to save the Parisians and the French people and we do that with determination and consistency.

France reported a record 52,518 new Covid-19 cases on Monday, while the country’s Covid-19 death toll rose by 416 to 37,435.

Veran, speaking on RTL, warned his countrymen and women that, “Christmas would not be a normal celebration”. He added:

Christmas will remain a celebration. We must anticipate the fact that the virus will still be here, it will not stop at Christmas so we have to adapt.

The ability to celebrate Christmas and hold end-of-the-year parties would be directly dependent on the results of the lockdown and a lowering of the pressure on hospitals, he said.

Epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet (you can read what he said about the research on Covid and children  <https://www.theguardian.com/science/2020/aug/09/what-we-are-learning-about-covid-19-and-kids> here), from the Pasteur Institute and a member of the scientific advisory group, said that “if the lockdown works well in the different French regions, we expect a 65-80% drop in infections after one month. It will take two months for a drop of 80-90%. We will arrive, therefore, in the Christmas period”.

Based on these estimations Fontanet said certain measures could be loosened “but the circulation of the virus would be more significant at Christmas”.

Apologies for the slightly fuzzy translation, my French is significantly more rusty than I would like.

The Czech Republic has reported 9,241 new coronavirus cases and 225 new deaths in the last 24 hours, data from the health ministry showed on Tuesday.

The tally of infections rose to 350,896 in the nation of 10.7 million people, while deaths stood at 3,654.

The increase in deaths was spread over several days because of reporting issues, however, and was not limited to the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile professional athletes in the country will be allowed to train in indoor facilities from Wednesday, reports Inside Scoop, a Czech news site in English. They have been closed since October 12 due to the epidemic.

Individual competitions will be able to resume only if they meet certain criteria. Regular testing will probably be one of the requirements. All matches will take place without spectators.

Perhaps my favourite Covid-related Czech news story story, however, comes from South Bohemia. It’s a couple of days old, but worth posting here for the picture alone in my humble opinion.

The Czech Republic is currently operating a strict 9pm curfew, which has encouraged some people to be a little creative, according to Expats CZ.

One exception that allows people out of the house at night is walking a dog, but not everybody has one.

That didn’t stop a man in České Budějovice, South Bohemia. He was caught by local police “walking” a toy stuffed dog in the city center at náměstí Přemysla Otakara II. A Czech News crew was following the police to document them dealing with curfew violations and captured the incident. Images has since gone viral over social media.

Massive, massive thanks to Helen Sullivan for her particularly Herculean efforts today. She really makes the rest of us look bad, all of the time.

That’s it from me after a day of running this and our Vienna blog. Phew. Good thing there’s no other big news happening today?

It’s over to Alexandra Topping for the next while.

China changes school curriculum to reflect Beijing's positive Covid narrative

Chinese government-endorsed content about the pandemic and the “fighting spirit” of the country’s response will be added to school curriculum, the country’s ministry of education has said, in a move to enshrine the country’s narrative of success against the virus.

The content will be added to elementary and middle school classes in biology, health and physical education, history, and literature, and will “help students understand the basic fact that the Party and the state always put the life and safety of its people first”, the ministry said on Wednesday.

“Students will learn about key figures and deeds which emerged during the epidemic prevention and control efforts. They will learn to foster public awareness and dedication, to enrich knowledge about the advantages of the socialist system with Chinese characteristics,” the ministry said:

In the UK, companies are scrambling to put staff back on furlough after the scheme was due to close at the end of October but will now continue throughout this month amid new lockdowns. However, for those already made redundant it is too late.

I spoke to people worried about their futures:

The number of furloughed workers in the UK is expected to more than double this month to as many as 5.5 million as the government places England into national lockdown and expands its emergency Covid-19 wage support schemes.

Economists said businesses were set to claim for billions of pounds of additional state support from the furlough scheme over the coming weeks, amid the enforced closure of non-essential venues for the second time this year:

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