Worldwide death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has passed 1 million. Montreal and Quebec City return to highest COVID-19 alert level, Ontario reports a record 700 new daily infections. Canadian quarantines are back at 14 days. New York City elementary schools reopen in big back-to-school test, and as for the rest of the world…
United States
The number of people hospitalized for the coronavirus has nearly tripled in areas outside of Missouri’s two largest metropolitan areas since the state reopened for business in mid-June, according to state health department data Tuesday. The state’s northwest, southeast, southwest and central regions all reached record highs for virus-related hospitalizations on Monday, based on seven-day averages. All told, Missouri reported 1,094 hospitalizations, five fewer than a day earlier, when statewide hospitalizations peaked.
Excluding the St. Louis and Kansas City areas, hospitalizations have risen 186% in the 3 1/2 months since Republican Gov. Mike Parson allowed Missouri to reopen on June 16. The seven-day average for hospitalizations outstate on June 16 was 161; on Monday it was 461.
Businesses in 89 of Tennessee’s 95 counties will no longer have to adhere to social distancing guidelines, Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday, even though cases of COVID-19 in the state have been persistently high. The Republican governor said he would lift all virus-related limits on businesses and social gatherings for most of the state.
The action, which takes effect Thursday, notably does not apply to Tennessee’s six populous counties with locally run health departments. Sullivan, Knox, Hamilton, Davidson, Madison and Shelby counties can continue implementing their own restrictions.
According to data kept by The Associated Press, there were about 287 new cases per 100,000 people in Tennessee over the past two weeks, which ranks 13th in the country for new cases per capita. The state has seen at least 2,389 virus-released deaths
Alarmed by a spike in coronavirus infections in a few Orthodox Jewish neighbourhoods, New York City officials will start issuing fines in those areas to people who refuse to wear masks, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Tuesday.
Casino giant MGM Resorts International said it’s teaming with a firm that provided COVID-19 screenings for the National Hockey League playoffs and a health care provider for high-volume events in an optional conference attendee safety plan at its US hotels and casinos.
Almost all 29 MGM Resorts properties around the country have idle conference space and empty convention schedules due to crowd size limits. Event scheduling will depend on local regulations and mandates.
Disney is laying off 28,000 US employees as the coronavirus pandemic hammers its theme park business.The layoffs will hit the company’s Parks, Experiences and Products, the company said on Tuesday. Disney added that 67% of the employees laid off will be part-time workers.
Russia
Moscow authorities are extending school holidays by a week amid a surge of new coronavirus cases. Mayor Sergei Sobyanin on Tuesday ordered all schools to go on holiday between Oct. 5-18 and urged parents to keep their children at home during this period.
“Children (account for) a significant share of infections, often asymptomatic,” Sobyanin said in an online statement. “When they come home, they easily transmit the virus to adults and elderly members of the family, who get sick more severely.”
Health officials on Tuesday reported 8,232 new virus cases, with 2,300 in Moscow — the highest daily number in the Russian capital since late May. Russia currently has the fourth largest caseload in the world with over 1.16 million confirmed infections. It ranks 11th in the world with a reported 20,450 deaths.
Last week, officials asked the elderly to stay at home starting on Monday and requested employers to allow as many people as possible to work from home.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday urged Russians to remain vigilant. “The fight against the epidemic is not over, it goes on. The risks remain,” Putin said.
Spain
Spain’s government is providing four more months of furlough to support workers and companies affected by the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
The existing plan expires Wednesday and was designed when the country’s strict lockdown brought the economy to a standstill. But a second wave is already causing partial lockdowns in towns and neighbourhoods across the country, most significantly in the economic hub of Madrid.
The new plan approved Tuesday by Spain’s Cabinet was agreed to by unions and business lobbies. It extends benefits until the end of January. Companies that can’t afford to keep either all or part of the workforce due to virus outbreaks can apply for tax cuts under the pledge to bring employees back for at least half a year. The government will keep paying most of the salary of the workers sent home.
Some 600,000 people remain under the plan that began in March, according to the government. Labor Minister Yolanda Diaz says, “If we can save the fall and winter, we will fully enter recovery times.”
With infections nearing 750,000 and the confirmed death toll more than 31,400, the second wave has hit Madrid, which has a rate of infection 2.5 times higher than the national average.
The Netherlands
The Dutch public health institute says 19,326 people tested positive for coronavirus in the last week, nearly 6,000 more than the previous week. The announcement Tuesday came hours before new restrictions were expected to help rein in the rapid spread of the virus.
The official death toll in the Netherlands rose by 51 in the last week to 6,393. The public health institute says it has seen sharp increases in infections throughout most of the country and a rise in the percentage of people testing positive.
A month ago, 2.5% of tests were positive, while 7.4% of recent tests came back positive.
Prime Minister Mark Rutte announced Monday night all bars and restaurants will have to close their doors at 10 p.m. and limited how many people can gather indoors and outdoors. The restrictions included a ban of fans at professional sports events.
Britain
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised new adult education and training programs to help workers recover amid the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson says the pandemic “has massively accelerated changes that were already happening in the U.K. economy,” such as the switch to online shopping.
He says neglect of skills training has left Britain short of construction workers, mechanics, engineers, IT experts and lab technicians.
He adds while some jobs would inevitably be lost because of the coronavirus, the government would “give people the skills to find and create new and better jobs.” The measures including more apprenticeships in skilled trades, free courses and “digital boot camps” for older workers.
Critics say the measures provide little immediate help to people who are losing their jobs because of the pandemic. U.K. officials are bracing for a surge in unemployment at the end of October when the government ends a program that’s paid the salaries of millions of furloughed workers.
India
India has registered 70,589 new confirmed coronaviruses cases in the past 24 hours, maintaining a noticeable decline in daily infections.
The Health Ministry raised India’s confirmed total since the pandemic began to more than 6.1 million on Tuesday, but said the country had a little less than 1 million active coronavirus cases. It also reported 776 fatalities in the last 24 hours, which pushed the death toll to 96,318.
India is still registering the highest number of daily cases globally, but with a recovery rate of more than 82.5%, the number of recoveries has passed 5 million, the Health Ministry said.
The first two weeks of September saw India clocking 90,000 cases every day. Since then India has seen a sharp decrease in the number of new daily cases.
But health experts have warned about the potential for the virus to spread during the upcoming religious festival season.
Sweden
The Swedish government on Tuesday decided to increase the number of spectators attending sports event from 50 to 500 on Oct. 15. Bjorn Eriksson, chairman of the Swedish Sports Confederation, welcomed the move and called “a step in the right direction.”
The exemption applies if there’s no increased spread of infection in society. The Scandinavian country has opted for an approach of keeping large parts of the society open.
Most of Europe locked down their populations early in the pandemic by closing schools, restaurants, fitness centres and borders, while Sweden did not. Sweden has 90,923 confirmed cases and 5,880 confirmed deaths.
Brussels
Brussels authorities have decided to ban prostitution until further notice in a bid to slow the spread of coronavirus in Belgium’s capital city. In addition, authorities have shut down three hotels hosting sex workers because social distancing measures were not respected, a spokeswoman at Brussels city hall told The Associated Press on Tuesday. She said police controls will be stepped up to make sure the ban is enforced.
The decision came after Brussels decided to impose a curfew on bars. Since the start of this week, all bars and cafes have to close between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. while any other businesses selling drinks or food will shut down at 10 p.m. Brussels is facing a surge of new coronavirus infections.
Israel
Israel’s health minister says the country’s nationwide lockdown is likely to be extended. The Israeli government imposed a second countrywide lockdown ahead of the Jewish High Holidays earlier this month in a bid to halt the spread of the coronavirus.
The lockdown was initially slated to be lifted on Oct. 11, but in a radio interview on Tuesday Health Minister Yuli Edelstei said that “there is no scenario that in another 10 days we will lift everything and say `It’s all over, everything is ok.”’
Israel has recorded more than 233,000 confirmed cases of the virus since the pandemic began and more than 1,500 deaths from the disease, according to the Health Ministry.
While Israel garnered praise for its swift response to the arrival of the pandemic in March, the country’s reopening of the economy in May saw new infections skyrocket over the summer, and now it has one of the highest infection rates per capita in the world.
Australia
Authorities are concerned by a COVID-19 outbreak aboard a cargo ship off Australia’s northwest coast that has infected most of the crew. Eight more members of the Filipino crew tested positive for the new coronavirus on Monday, bringing the number of infections to 17 out of a crew of 21.
Seven of the infected sailors remained aboard the Liberia-flagged bulk carrier Patricia Oldendorff, which is anchored off Port Hedland, a major iron ore export terminal, Western Australia State Health Minister Roger Cook said Tuesday. The seven are part of an essential skeleton crew of nine. The other 10 infected crew members were in hotel quarantine at Port Hedland. None required hospital treatment.
Cook said he wanted to bring the skeleton crew ashore, but the ship would need a replacement crew and to undergo a deep clean before that replacement crew boarded.
Phillipines
A southern Philippine province and its war-battered capital will be placed under a mild lockdown in October, while the rest of the country will have more relaxed quarantine restrictions.
President Rodrigo Duterte announced the quarantine restrictions for October in televised remarks Monday night. Lanao del Sur province and its capital, Marawi city, will fall under a lockdown starting Thursday due to infection spikes in recent weeks. Most of Marawi’s commercial and downtown areas were destroyed in 2017 fighting between the military and Islamic State group-aligned militants.
Metropolitan Manila and five other cities will remain under general quarantine restrictions with more businesses and public transport allowed to partially operate on the condition people wear masks and stay safely apart. Classes in public schools resume online on Oct. 5. The Philippines has reported the most coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia.
South Korea
South Korea’s new coronavirus tally has come below 50 for the first time in about 50 days amid a downward trend in new infections. The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency said Tuesday the 38 cases added in the last 24 hours took the country’s total to 23,699 with 407 deaths.
South Korea had seen a viral resurgence, mostly in the densely populated Seoul area since early last month. But the number of new cases has begun slowing after authorities enforced stringent social distancing rules. Many experts have warned the virus could spread again after this week’s traditional Chuseok autumn holidays.
United Nations
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres says the loss of 1 million people to the coronavirus is an “agonizing milestone” that has been made worse by the “savageness of this disease.”
In a statement released after the global death toll from the pandemic crossed 1 million, Guterres called it a “mind-numbing figure.”
“They were fathers and mothers, wives and husbands, brothers and sisters, friends and colleagues,” he said. “The pain has been multiplied by the savageness of this disease.”
Guterres warned “there is no end in sight to the spread of the virus, the loss of jobs, the disruption of education, the upheaval to our lives.”
Still he said he said the pandemic could be overcome with responsible leadership, co-operation and science, as well as precautions such as social distancing and wearing face masks. He said any vaccine must be “available and affordable to all.”
Vaccines
India’s Serum Institute, the world’s biggest vaccine producer, says it would produce 200 million doses of coronavirus vaccines for developing countries. In August, the vaccines alliance GAVI said it had agreed to a deal with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Serum Institute, to speed the manufacturing and delivery of up to 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines to developing countries in 2021. Serum now says that it has agreed to produce an additional 100 million doses of coronavirus vaccines.
This collaboration gives upfront capital to the Serum Institute so that once any effective COVID-19 vaccine is licensed, the company can mass produce the shots at scale, as early as the first half of 2021.
Adar Poonawalla, CEO of Serum Institute of India said in a statement, “At this stage, it is important for governments, global health and financial institutions in the public and private sector to come together in ensuring that no one is left behind in the road to recovery.”
Countries including Britain, France and the US have signed deals with pharmaceuticals for access to COVID-19 vaccines even before they have been licensed. Activists have warned that rich countries hoarding limited vaccines could leave very few for the developing world.
The Serum Institute has entered manufacturing agreements for vaccine candidates from AstraZeneca and Novovaxe. GAVI heads an international plan to buy vaccines for lower income countries.