India’s economy shrinks nearly 24%; Hong Kong launches mass testing; WHO says states can’t ‘pretend pandemic is over’. Follow the latest
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Hong Kong began a mass coronavirus testing programme Tuesday overshadowed by fears that China is using the scheme to harvest DNA, while the number of infections in the United States surpassed six million.
The voluntary initiative is offering free tests to millions of Hong Kongers as authorities worldwide continue efforts to stamp out an illness that has now killed almost 850,000 and infected over 25 million.
I reported earlier that India had added nearly 2m cases to its coronavirus case load in August .... we now have today’s figures and the country has added another 69,921 new infections on Tuesday, the lowest daily jump in six days, taking its overall total to 3.69m infections. This is based on more than 1m tests.
The country has had the single highest daily total of new cases for more than three weeks, according to a Reuters tally.
How Covid-19 is impacting people’s dreams is the subject of a study being run by a cross-disciplinary team of academics from Australia, the UK and Finland.
“Pandemic dreams” are already the subject of a book of essays from Harvard research Deirdre Barrett, alongside reams of popular audience articles and social media posts.
Tens of thousands of girls across Asia are being forced into marriage by desperate families plunged into poverty because of the coronavirus pandemic, as campaigners warn years of progress tackling the practice is being undone.
Child marriage has long been common in traditional communities from the Indonesian archipelago to India, Pakistan and Vietnam, but numbers had been decreasing as charities made inroads by encouraging access to education and women’s health services.
Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who has consistently downplayed the severity of the coronavirus outbreak, said on Monday that nobody will be forced to have the vaccine against Covid-19 once it is developed.
The comments come after the government earmarked millions of dollars for the purchase and future production of vaccinations as Brazil suffers the second worst outbreak of the pandemic outside the United States.
French pupils go back to school Tuesday as schools across Europe open their doors to greet returning pupils this month, nearly six months after the coronavirus outbreak forced them to close and despite rising infection rates across the continent.
Many teachers and parents are worried the reopening of schools will accelerate the spread of Covid-19, but governments have insisted it should go ahead.
South Korea’s coronavirus cases have remained under 300 for a third day in a row. On Tuesday the CDC recorded 235 cases, including 222 local infections. It took the total number of cases recorded in the country over the 20,000 mark, to 20,182, since the first infection was reported on 20 January.
“It is worrisome that more than 30 percent of the confirmed COVID-19 patients over the past two weeks are those aged more than 60,” vice health minister, Kim Ganglip, said in a briefing. “The risk of dying due to the COVID-19 virus is highest among older people and those with underlying diseases.”
India has added nearly 2m coronavirus cases in one month, jumping from 1.64m infections at the end of July to 3.62m at the end of August. It’s the highest single-month rise recorded in any country in a month throughout the pandemic. The next highest monthly total is the US, which added 1.91m cases in July.
India also saw a surge in deaths in August of 28,859, which, according to figures from Our World in Data, was more than 50% higher than in July.
And we have just heard from the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, who says when he announces his road map out of the Australian state’s six-week lockdown, there will be two roadmaps ... one for regional parts in the state and one for metropolitan Melbourne. Andrews said:
And ultimately, this is all about making sure that the sacrifice, the pain, the amazing work that Victorians have done counts for something.
It’s no good doing this too fast, opening up too much, too quickly, only to be open for just a few weeks and back in lockdown by Christmas time.
In Australia we are getting some more information about cases in the most populous state of New South Wales. The state has 13 new cases, 11 of which are locally acquired and linked to known clusters, including a cluster in the centre of the city, which now totals 41 cases.
WATCH: Dr Jeremy McAnulty provides a #COVID19 update for Tuesday 1 September.https://t.co/c7iWOsGmGL
China has reported 10 new Covid-19 cases, down from 17 reported a day earlier, the country’s health authority said on Tuesday.
The National Health Commission said in a statement that all new cases were imported infections involving travellers from overseas, marking the 16th consecutive day of no local infections.
There are 14 new cases of COVID-19 to report in New Zealand today - nine in MIQ (managed quarantine) and five in the community, all related to the Auckland cluster. Yesterday Auckland dropped down from Level 3 to Level 2, despite more cases emerging.
There are 10 people with COVID-19 in hospital today, two of whom are in ICU care.
We are about to get New Zealand’s daily media briefing on coronavirus cases, today hosted by minister for managed isolation and quarantine Megan Woods and Air Commodore Darryn Webb.
Local media is reporting that there are 14 new cases in the country, nine of which are in managed isolation, and five in the community. Our NZ correspondent, Eleanor Ainge Roy, will bring us the updates.
Hong Kong has started conducting mass coronavirus tests on Tuesday, a health scheme that has been swept up in the political debate dividing the city, where many remain deeply distrustful of both local leaders and China, Agence France-Presse reports.
The voluntary tests are part of an attempt to stamp out a third wave of infections that began in late June and saw the densely populated city reimpose economically painful social distancing measures.
Brazil reported 45,961 new cases of the novel coronavirus and 553 deaths from the disease caused by the virus in the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Monday.
Brazil has registered 3,908,272 cases of the virus since the pandemic began, while the official death toll from COVID-19 has risen to 121,381, according to ministry data, in the world’s worst coronavirus outbreak outside the United States.
Mexico’s health ministry on Monday reported 3,719 new confirmed cases of coronavirus infections and 256 additional fatalities, bringing the total in the country to 599,560 cases and 64,414 deaths.
Spain has registered more than 23,000 new COVID-19 cases since Friday, health emergency chief Fernando Simon said on Monday, suggesting the infection rate had declined slightly from an 21 August peak, Reuters reports.
Health ministry data showed 2,489 new cases were diagnosed in the past 24 hours, bringing the total since the onset of the pandemic to 462,858.
Back to India and the former Indian president, Pranab Mukherjee, a senior leader of the Congress party who served in multiple cabinets during five decades in politics, has died. He was 84.
Mukherjee had emergency surgery for a blood clot in his brain on 10 August after a fall. The hospital said he tested positive for Covid-19 after the surgery and his condition was critical.
Related: India mourns former president Pranab Mukherjee amid Covid crisis
Australia’s southern state of Victoria has recorded 70 new cases and five new deaths. The state has been in a strict stage four lockdown, which has seen new infections fall and I believe 70 is the lowest case number in nearly two months. The premier, Daniel Andrews, said he the roadmap out of the lockdown would be outlined on the weekend.
Victoria has been the centre of cases in the past two months, but concerns are held for a growing cluster linked to Sydney’s central business district, and on Tuesday the north-eastern state of Queensland reported two new cases. The state’s southern border with New South Wales will remain closed through September.
#COVID19VicData for 1 September, 2020:
There were 70 new cases and sadly 5 deaths reported in Victoria yesterday. Our thoughts are with the loved ones of all those affected.
We'll have more information for you later today in our media release. pic.twitter.com/by6mfDDWxx
India’s economy growth suffered a historic 23.9% contraction in the April-June quarter, as the strict coronavirus lockdown hit businesses.
It was the biggest fall since the country started publishing quarterly statistics 1996. On Monday the government warned the figures could be revised further since the pandemic had also affected the ability to collect accurate data on economic activity.
France’s new Covid-19 infections surged by almost 50% in August, hitting 281,025 cases, versus 187,919 at the end of July.
New cases in August increased on average by a record 3,003 every day, a figure four times higher than July’s average increase of 746 per day.
The World Health Organization has urged governments to engage with people demonstrating against Covid-19 restrictions and listen to their concerns, but stressed protesters needed to understand the virus was dangerous.
Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus voiced understanding for the growing frustration felt as people continue to have to deal with restrictions eight months into the pandemic.
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, with me, Alison Rourke.
The World Health Organization’s boss, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, says “no country can just pretend the pandemic is over”, warning that “opening up without having control is a recipe for disaster”.
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