Costa Rica to halt reopening of economy as virus cases rise – as it happened

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Here are the most recent updates globally:

• The number of coronavirus cases in Brazil has passed 1 million and the country was approaching 50,000 deaths on Friday. Brazil is the country’s second-worst hit country after the United States.
• In the Brazilian Amazon, local authorities have been accused of racism after locking down a string of indigenous villages and banning indigenous people from entering a local town because of a coronavirus outbreak.
• In the UK, ministers have been accused of downplaying the gravity of the pandemic after it emerged there had been more than 1000 deaths per day for 22 consecutive days from April.
• The World Health Organisation warned on Friday of a “new and dangerous phase” of the pandemic with people tiring of lockdown despite the accelerating spread of Covid-19 in some countries.
• The number of coronavirus cases in Saudi Arabia exceeded 150,000 on Friday following a rise in infections.
• The New Zealand government is under pressure after three confirmed cases of coronavirus emerged this week after a failure to test returned travellers before they left quarantine.
• In Australia:
• Employment service providers have warned the newly unemployed will have to wait three months to claim up to $1,200 for training and other expenses from July.
• Up to 350 international students will be able to return to university after the federal government and the ACT government approved a plan to bring them in on a charter flight.
• Authorities continue to monitor the rising number of coronavirus cases in Victoria as the state prepares to further ease restrictions from Monday
• And, in case you missed Friday’s economic update from the Reserve Bank, Australia’s unemployment rate rose 0.7 points to 7.1% between April and May.

19 Jun 202018.50 EDT

Lisa Cox

In Australia, authorities are watching the rise in coronavirus cases in Victoria closely as the state prepares to further ease restrictions from Monday.

Gyms, cinemas, indoor sports centres and concert venues are scheduled to reopen on Monday while cafes, restaurants and pubs will increase capacity from 20 people to 50.

Thirteen new cases were recorded on Friday, 18 on Thursday and 21 on Wednesday, resulting in the state’s biggest increase in more than a month.

While the rest of the country’s Covid-19 infections decline, Victoria’s active cases rose to 91 on Friday, up from 66 four weeks ago.

But health authorities said they were relieved to know the links to most of the new cases, many of them returned travellers or close contacts of returned travellers.

“We’re hoping that this isn’t the beginning of a second wave and we’re doing everything we absolutely can to make sure that that’s not the case,” Victorian deputy chief health officer Annaliese van Diemen said.

Brazil has passed a total of more than one million coronavirus cases, and nearly 50,000 deaths, according to its health ministry data, in a new low for the world’s second worst-hit country.

Brazil has recorded 1,032,913 confirmed cases, second only to the United States, with 1,206 new deaths reported on Friday to take the total official fatalities to 48,954, the ministry said.

The Brazilian government on Friday published new guidelines for meatpackers after a spike of Covid-19 cases at food plants, including keeping workers at least one metre apart, but labour prosecutors criticized the steps as inadequate.

No testing is required under the ministry of agriculture’s new rules, which were issued after consultations with the labour prosecutor’s office.

A prosecutors’ representative said the guidelines ignored key recommendations made by the office that specified minimum distancing of 1.5 metres between workers in common areas of the plant, as well as mass testing.

The prosecutors’ recommendations also addressed the quality of face masks required for use, physical distancing and testing protocols.

The CDC in the US has recommended that meatpacking workers be spaced at least six feet (two metres) apart.

Costa Rica’s government will halt reopening the country’s economy due to an increase in the number of coronavirus cases over recent days, health minister Daniel Salas said at a news conference on Friday.

An outbreak of coronavirus cases at a meat processer in northern England owned by British supermarket Asda has caused the plant to close temporarily, the Walmart-owned retailer said on Friday.

Asda said it had been working with public health authorities to ensure staff were tested, and that while the factory in Cleckheaton, West Yorkshire had not been forced to shut, it had been closed as a precaution. It did not confirm how many cases had been found.

A joint statement by Asda and Kober Limited, the firm which runs the plant, said:

As soon as we became aware that some colleagues at our Kober site may have Covid-19, we responded swiftly and worked collaboratively with the local authority and Public Health England to test all colleagues.

The closure is the latest in a series of outbreaks linked to meat processing plants across Europe and the Americas. On Thursday, one of Britain’s biggest food companies suspended production after more than 50 positive tests.

British trade union Unite said it had received reports of five more suspected outbreaks at different meat processing factories, without providing further details.

The union said employers had to do more to protect their staff, while academic experts outlined risks of working in a factory environment.

Brazil is expected to surpass 1 million confirmed coronavirus cases on Friday, second only to the United States, with total deaths fast approaching 50,000 as the country struggles with a tense political climate and worsening economic outlook.

The true extent of the outbreak in Brazil far exceeds official figures released after 6 pm local time on most evenings, according to many experts, who cite a lack of widespread testing in the country as a factor adding to many uncertainties about the disease, Reuters reports.

Alexandre Naime Barbosa, a medical professor at the São Paulo State University said:

That number of 1 million is much less than the real number of people who have been infected, because there is under-reporting of a magnitude of five to ten times. The true number is probably at least 3 million and could even be as high as 10 million people.

Brazil’s health ministry reported 978,142 total confirmed cases and 47,748 related deaths on Thursday evening. The count has risen by a daily average of 25,000 new cases and 1,000 fatalities for the past week.

But by Friday afternoon, a consortium of Brazilian news outlets keeping an independent tally of COVID-19 statistics from state health officials reported the country had already passed the benchmark of 1 million confirmed cases.

Guatemala has replaced its health minister amid a spike in COVID-19 infections and deaths in the Central American country, Associated Press reports.

An official in the presidency who was not authorized to speak about the personnel change and requested anonymity said that health minister Hugo Monroy was replaced on Friday with Amelia Flores, a former vice-minister of health in an earlier administration.

Monroy, who had held the position since January, had been harshly criticized for his management of the pandemic.

Guatemala has reported more than 11,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 449 deaths.

President Alejandro Giammattei has been under growing pressure from the business sector to loosen restrictions. Earlier attempts to reactivate the economy were followed by a surge in infections, prompting Giammattei to clamp down again.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned on Friday of a “new and dangerous phase” of the coronavirus pandemic with people tiring of lockdowns despite the disease’s accelerating spread.

The virus, which has now killed more than 454,000 people and infected 8.4 million people worldwide, is surging in the Americas and parts of Asia even as Europe starts to ease restrictive measures.

Lockdowns imposed to halt the spread of the disease have caused crippling economic damage, but the WHO said the pandemic still posed a major threat.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual press conference.

The world is in a new and dangerous phase. Many people are understandably fed up with being at home... but the virus is still spreading fast.

A vaccine remains months off at best despite several trials, while scientists are still discovering more about the virus, its symptoms and the extent to which it may have spread before being identified.

Zimbabwe Health Minister Obadiah Moyo was arrested by police on Friday over allegations of corruption in government procurement of around $60 million worth of medical equipment, the Daily News newspaper reported.

Several other Zimbabwean and South African news outlets reported the arrest. Reuters was not immediately able to confirm the arrest with authorities in Harare, Reuters reports.

Last week Delish Nguwaya, said to be a local representative of international pharmaceutical firm Drax International, the company supplying the equipment to the government, was arrested over the same deal, according to the state-owned Zimbabwe broadcasting commission.

President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who took over from long time leader Robert Mugabe after a military coup in 2017, has since cancelled the procurement deals.

In addition to the novel coronavirus, which has infected nearly 500 people and caused four deaths, Zimbabwe is facing worst economic crisis in more than a decade and increasing public anger over inadequate services and government corruption.

19 Jun 202013.46 EDT

Nicola Slawson

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Spain expects imminent decision on travel corridor with UK.

Spain expects a decision in the coming hours in its talks with Britain on whether to establish a travel corridor to avoid imposing a quarantine on travelers due to the coronavirus pandemic, a Spanish foreign ministry source said on Friday.

“Spain is willing to be open to the United Kingdom. We are in talks with them about their quarantine. We are in a position to open without a quarantine,” the source added.

Shops in Wales are set to reopen on Monday.

First Minister Mark Drakeford has said the “R” rate in Wales continues to be below one1 and the number of deaths reported every day is at the lowest point since lockdown began.

Each of the different nations in the UK are in charge of their own coronavirus lockdown restrictions, and this week has seen the lockdown eased slightly in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Italy: Covid-19 was present in two big cities two months before first case was detected.

In Italy traces of coronavirus have been found in samples taken from sewage water in Milan and Turin in December, according to a study by Italy’s Higher Health Institute (ISS).

Researchers examined 40 samples collected between October 2019 and February 2020, as well as 24 control samples between September 2018 and June 2019.

Coronavirus traces were also found in wastewater samples collected in Bologna on 29 January.

Deaths from the COVID-19 epidemic in Italy climbed by 47 on Friday, against 66 the day before, the Civil Protection Agency said, while the daily tally of new cases decreased to 251 from 333 on Thursday.

The total death toll since the outbreak came to light on 21 Feb now stands at 34,561 the agency said, the fourth highest in the world after those of the United States, Brazil and Britain.

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The number of confirmed cases amounts to 238,011 the eighth highest global tally.

The agency said 2.987 million people had been tested for the virus against 2.959 million on Thursday, out of a population of around 60 million.

Apple Inc will shut some stores again in Florida, Arizona, South Carolina, and North Carolina in the United States due to a spike in novel coronavirus cases, Bloomberg News reported on Friday.

Apple did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Crowds have gathered at shopping malls and supermarkets across Colombia to take advantage of a government-mandated VAT-free day for shoppers, despite warnings from health experts that the South American country is far from past its peak of coronavirus cases.

On Friday morning, scenes at malls resembled those on Black Friday, the shopping bonanza in the US in late November. Photos circulated on social media showing huge crowds of people packed into stores, albeit while wearing face masks.

Colombia is continuing to relax its lockdown measures, despite cases of Covid-19 climbing over 3000 every day. 60,000 cases have been confirmed with 1950 deaths. Last weekend ICU occupancy passed 50% in Bogotá - the capital - leading city officials to tighten restrictions.

Yet Colombia’s president Iván Duque appears to be more concerned with reopening the economy. Friday’s VAT holiday will be followed by two more in the coming weeks, aimed at getting the economy going once more.

An analyst at El Espectador, one of Colombia’s largest newspapers, wrote on Friday that the measure was likely inspired by the US, “where tax holidays are universally recognized as demagogic policies,” that do little to relieve hard-hit consumers and instead benefit large-scale retailers.

With queues snaking around stores and malls overnight, many took to social media to voice their umbrage with the reckless policy. “There’s still not enough ICU beds… there’s not enough respirators, but this is a VAT-free day,” one person tweeted, with a video of queues in Cali, a major city in the country’s western Cauca Valley.

Colombia’s inspector general, Fernando Carrillo Florez, lambasted the tax holiday. “It can become one of the largest sources of infection,” he tweeted. “In one day of irresponsibility, we can lose what we gained in 100 days of lockdown.”

The coronavirus pandemic is accelerating, the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned.

Thursday’s 150,000 new cases were the highest in a single day and nearly half of them were in the Americas

“The world is in a new and dangerous phase,” Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual briefing from WHO headquarters in Geneva. “The virus is still spreading fast, it is still deadly, and most people are still susceptible.”

More than 8.53 million people have been reported infected by the novel coronavirus globally and 453,834 have died.

Tedros urged people to maintain social distancing and “extreme vigilance.”

As well as the Americas, a large number of new cases were coming from South Asia and the Middle East, Tedros added.

The coronavirus was present in two large Italian cities in December, more than two months before the first case was detected, a national health institute study of waste water has found.

That suggests the virus appeared in Italy around the same time it was first reported in China.

Researchers discovered genetic traces of Sars-CoV-2 - as the virus is officially known - in samples of waste water collected in Milan and Turin at the end of last year, and Bologna in January, the ISS institute said in a statement seen by AFP on Friday.

Italy’s first known native case was discovered mid-February.

The results “help to understand the start of the circulation of the virus in Italy,” the ISS said.

They also “confirm the by-now consolidated international evidence” as to the strategic function of sewer samples as an early detection tool, it added.

The results feed into an effort by scientists around the world to trace the virus’s family tree.