World Coronavirus Dispatch: US parents get good news on child-care centres

South Korea makes social distancing rules stricter and South Africa struggles to get a grip on the disease

A report published by the US’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests child-care facilities may reopen safely in areas where the virus is low. It’s a promising finding that may offer a glimmer of hope for parents of children who are out of school and are unlikely to return to in-person learning anytime soon.

The report published Friday documents just 52 coronavirus infections in child-care centers in Rhode Island over a two-month period in which hundreds of centers were authorized to reopen. Read more here

Let’s look at the global statistics:

Total Confirmed Cases: 2,29,69,090

Change Over Yesterday: 5,55,964

Total Deaths: 7,99,632

Total Recovered: 1,47,25,753

Nations hit with most cases: US (56,24,721), Brazil (35,32,330), India (29,75,701), Russia (9,49,531) and South Africa (6,03,338)

Source: Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Research Center

 

US Postal Service head: Mail-in ballots 'will arrive in time': The head of the US Postal Service has said the agency is "fully capable and committed" to handling the nation's mail-in votes for November's election. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy told lawmakers that postal votes would continue to be prioritised and that recent policy changes were not made in attempt to influence the 2020 election. Read more here

South Korea announces strict social distancing rules: South Korea said on Saturday it will roll out tougher social distancing guidelines to curb the spread of coronavirus nationwide as it battles a new outbreak of the disease spreading from the capital, Seoul. The nation reported 315 new domestic coronavirus infections as of midnight Friday. Read more here

Argentina joins Chinese coronavirus vaccine trial: Argentina joined Peru, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates in approving Phase 3 clinical trials for a coronavirus vaccine developed by China National Biotec Group (CNBG). As China forges ahead in the global race to develop a vaccine to curb the COVID-19 pandemic and as cases within China dwindle, CNBG needs research participants from other countries for testing. Read more here

Spain re-emerges as Europe’s coronavirus epicentre: Spain has re-emerged as the epicentre of the coronavirus pandemic in Europe and its government appears largely in denial over it. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is on vacation with his family and hasn’t come out to address the public after Spain, over the course of this week, recorded the highest number of daily infections per million people in Europe. Read more here

Philippines reports 4,933 coronavirus infections, 26 deaths: The Philippines reported 4,933 infections of the new coronavirus on Saturday. In a bulletin, the health ministry said total confirmed cases have increased to 187,249 while confirmed deaths have reached 2,966. The Philippines has the most infections in Southeast Asia, and second-highest number of deaths, behind Indonesia. Read more here

Specials

German airlines pitch plan to return trans-atlantic flights

Germany’s main aviation industry group has proposed the creation of limited air-travel corridors between major US and European hubs, a bid to crack open the nearly dormant market for trans-Atlantic flight. The pilot projects would link US airports in Chicago, Boston, Los Angeles and New York City-adjacent Newark, N.J., with Frankfurt and Munich in Germany, along with other major European intercontinental hubs, executives at BDL, which represents Germany’s airports and airlines. Read more here
 

South Africa struggles to contain coronavirus while the economy crumbles

While such African countries as Tanzania and Burundi chose to simply ignore the dangers of Covid-19, or lagged on testing and contact tracing—like Nigeria—South Africa did everything by the book. In March, shortly after the first coronavirus case in the country was detected, it shut its borders, instituted one of Africa’s strictest lockdowns, including bans on tobacco and alcohol sales, and rolled out a program to test millions of citizens. Five months later, the country has the world’s fifth-biggest outbreak, with nearly 600,000 confirmed cases. The reason: South Africa’s Covid-19 crisis collided with its ailing economy and dysfunctional politics. Read more here
 

Watch: The World Health Organization hopes the coronavirus crisis can be over in less than two years, WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Friday.