Global daily cases pass 500,000
A total of 516,898 new infections were registered worldwide on Tuesday, according to an AFP tally from health authorities around the globe – a record figure, although experts caution that most coronavirus cases were undiagnosed during the first wave.
The Johns Hopkins University tracker shows that the world has twice so far recorded a total of over 500,000 – and both in the last week. 23 October saw 506,713 new infections, while 26 October had a total of 525,164.
Many epidemiologists have been warning for weeks that European governments have lost control of the latest outbreaks, AFP ereports, making lockdowns almost inevitable as a last resort in what has become the global epicentre of the second wave of the coronavirus pandemic.
New cases in Europe have been doubling every week or so, while track-and-trace and mass-testing systems that were promised after the first wave have been quickly overwhelmed.
Reflecting the bleak outlook, and with the seasonal winter flu season still ahead in the northern hemisphere, European and US stock markets tumbled as investors fretted over how the new measures will further hurt the economy.
Summary
Hello and welcome to today’s live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic with me, Helen Sullivan.
Shortly before he announced a new national lockdown, French president, Emmanuel Macron, said Covid-19 is circulating more quickly than forecast and new measures are needed.
He said it is predicted that by mid-November all intensive care beds will be filled with Covid-19 cases and that France needs a sudden “brutal brake” on the transmission of the virus so doctors don’t have to make choices between Covid cases and car accident cases, for example.
- French President Emmanuel Macron imposed a new nationwide lockdown as Covid-19 cases continue to surge. The new measures echo the eight-week lockdown that France enforced in the spring, when hospitalisations and deaths caused by Covid-19 reached a peak. But unlike the previous lockdown, most schools are to remain open, Macron said, while universities will revert to online teaching and working from home will be generalised.
- The number of new cases recorded across Europe and beyond continued to grow, with new highs in cases or deaths in many countries, including Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Switzerland, Greece, Portugal, Iran, and Russia.
- AFP said that Tuesday’s daily toll of more than 500,000 infections was a new high – a figure that is likely to be overshadowed by Wednesday’s once the total is known.
- European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen set out a raft of new measures. Her key coronavirus advisor Peter Piot said that the new resurgence in the virus had come back because “we kind of relaxed too much”.
- France is set to announce tough new restrictions, with president Emmanuel Macron due to deliver a televised address shortly and speculation rife about a month-long lockdown.
- Germany will impose an emergency month-long lockdown that includes the closure of restaurants, gyms and theatres to reverse a rise in coronavirus cases that risks overwhelming hospitals, chancellor Angela Merkel said.
- South Africa’s president Cyril Ramaphosa went into self-isolation after a guest at a dinner he attended on Saturday tested positive. He is showing no symptoms, according to the government.
- The death tolls in Canada and Turkey rose to over 10,000. In Argentina, it went past 30,000. Canadian PM Justin Trudeau said: “This is going to be a tough winter”.