Covid-19: Australia ‘victim of own success’ as Germany faces months of tough restrictions

More than 53.9 million cases of coronavirus have been recorded worldwide with more than 1.3 million deaths, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. The following is a summary of the latest developments on the virus around the world:

Germany

The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany increased by 16,947 to 790,503, data from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) for infectious diseases showed on Sunday. The reported death toll rose by 107 to 12,485. Germany will have to live with "considerable restrictions" against the spread of the coronavirus for at least the next four to five months, economy minister Peter Altmaier told Bild am Sonntag newspaper in an interview. The number of infections was still far too high and he currently saw "little leeway" for opening restaurants and cinemas. Germany can't afford a "yo-yo shutdown" with the economy constantly opening and closing, the minister, a close confidant of chancellor Angela Merkel, told the newspaper.

“If we don’t want days with 50,000 new infections, as was the case in France a few weeks ago, we must see through this and not constantly speculate about which measures can be relaxed again,” Mr Altamaier told Bild am Sonntag. “All countries that lifted their restrictions too early have so far paid a high price in terms of human lives lost.” His comments echoed those of other leading German policy makers. Among others, health minister Jens Spahn said at an online event of Dr Merkel’s conservative party on Saturday that hard weeks, possibly even months, lie ahead. The German chairman of the World Medical Association, Frank Ulrich Montgomery, warned of a possible shortage of beds and staffing problems in German hospitals.

Australia

Australia's triumph in reining in Covid-19 while infections spiral up in many parts of the world is making the country a "victim of our own success," as Australians overseas want to come home, a cabinet minister said on Sunday. Australia closed its borders in March to all but citizens and residents, and the government has kept entries capped and put those allowed into the country in a two-week mandatory quarantine. Over the weekend, Australia saw its first week of no locally acquired coronavirus infections and no related deaths since the start of the pandemic. Victoria, the hotspot of the pandemic, recorded on Sunday its 16th consecutive day of no new cases and no deaths. "With what's happening with Covid-19 in other parts of the world, we're almost becoming a victim of our own success here in Australia, with more people wanting to come back," education minister Dan Tehan told Sky News television on Sunday. Prime minister Scott Morrison said on Friday that with a growing number of Australians wanting to return, there are not enough quarantine facilities for others, such as thousands of international students. "Within the existing caps, priority has to be given to returning Australians," Mr Tehan said on Sunday. He said, however, that states and territories have been asked to submit plans for a safe return of international students.

With foreign students contributing A$35 billion a year to the Australian economy, Canberra had hoped to slowly allow their return in 2021. Australia has recorded about 27,700 infections of the new coronavirus and 907 Covid-19 deaths, a fraction of what many other developed nations have seen, thanks to an impressive early response and strict measures that included sending Melbourne, the country's second-largest city, into months-long lockdown.

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US

California reported the most Covid-19 cases since August, a day after joining Oregon and Washington in an appeal for arriving travellers to quarantine. States across the US are tightening rules to stem the virus, which caused a record 190,000 infections on Friday as the federal government faces a stalled presidential transition. Washington Governor Jay Inslee is expected to announce a ban on indoor social gatherings and indoor restaurant dining Sunday morning, the Seattle Times reported, citing industry officials who were briefed on the new restrictions. The governor’s orders, aimed at combating a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in the state, will also include a ban on indoor bar service and would limit the number retail customers allowed in a store at one time, including at groceries and convenience stores, to 25 per cent of occupancy. The order is expected to extend for four weeks, the Times said.

New York reported 5,388 new infections, the second consecutive day over 5,000 – the highest level since the peak of the outbreak in April. Governor Andrew Cuomo did not, however, indicate any move toward widespread restrictions. New York’s strategy has been to target hot spots for specific measures, and he suggested Saturday that would continue. New Jersey reported a record 4,395 daily cases. “These numbers are alarming and concerning, to say the least,” Governor Phil Murphy said on Twitter. Hospitalisations climbed to 2,000, with 370 patients in intensive care. New Jersey’s previous high was 4,391 in April. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Saturday reported 10,690,665 cases of the novel coronavirus, an increase of 181,801 cases from its previous count, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 1,364 to 243,580.

Mexico

Mexico’s health ministry reported on Saturday 5,860 new cases of the novel coronavirus in the country and 635 deaths, bringing the official totals to 1,003,253 cases and 98,259 dead. Health officials have previously said the real number of cases is likely significantly higher than the reported figures.

Brazil

Brazil recorded the most weekly cases since early September, according to data on the Health Ministry’s website Saturday. Almost 259,000 infections were confirmed during the latest week, bringing the total to 5.85 million. Deaths increased by 4,552, the most in six weeks.

Italy

Italy has registered 37,255 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, the health ministry said on Saturday, down from 40,902 on Friday. The ministry also reported 544 Covid-related deaths, down from 550 the day before. There were 227,695 coronavirus swabs carried out in the past day, the ministry said, against a previous 254,908. The northern region of Lombardy, centred on

Italy’s financial capital Milan, remained the hardest hit area on Saturday, reporting 8,129 new cases against 10,634 on Friday.

Russia

Russia on Sunday reported a daily increase of 22,572 new coronavirus infections, taking the national tally to 1,925,825. Authorities also reported 352 coronavirus-related deaths in the last 24 hours, taking the official death toll to 33,186. Russian authorities are avoiding a full lockdown like the one imposed in the spring in favour of gradually tightening curbs: starting last Friday, nightlife venues were ordered to shut down from 11 pm to 6 am until mid-January. At 1.9 million, Russia has the fifth-highest caseload worldwide.

Austria

Austria on Saturday ordered a three-week lockdown in a last-ditch effort to bring surging coronavirus cases under control and relieve the stress on the health service in time for retailers to reopen in the run-up to Christmas. The country had so far used a lighter touch in dealing with the second wave of cases than it did with the first outbreak, which it brought under control with a lockdown in the spring. A nighttime curfew is in place from 8pm to 6am this month but shops are open; cafes, bars and restaurants are limited to take-away service; theatres and museums are closed. Those measures have failed to stop infections from accelerating and Austria now has one of Europe’s highest infection rates. Daily new cases hit a record of 9,586 on Friday, nine times higher than at the peak of the first wave. The conservative-led government had called a lockdown a last resort, but it was left with no alternative to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed. The new lockdown is due to start on Tuesday and end on Monday, December 7th.

Belgium

Hospitalisations dropped by 258 to 6,504 on Sunday in Belgium. That’s down from a peak of 7,489 on November 3rd and comes two weeks after the country imposed a lockdown to avert a health-care system collapse. The number of people in intensive care fell to 1,423, down 34. The 14-day virus incidence rate has now dropped to 969 per 100,000. The country reported 197 more deaths, bringing the total to 14,303.

UK

A further 462 people have died in the United Kingdom within 28 days of testing positive for Covid-19 as of Saturday, bringing the UK total to 51,766.

Separate figures published by the UK’s statistics agencies for deaths where Covid-19 has been mentioned on the death certificate, together with additional data on deaths that have occurred in recent days, show there have now been 67,000 deaths involving Covid-19 in the UK.

The Government said that, as of 9am on Saturday, there had been a further 26,860 lab-confirmed cases of coronavirus in the UK. It brings the total number of cases in the UK to 1,344,356.

Romania

Romanian officials will check all intensive care units after a fire killed 10 people at a hospital treating coronavirus patients, the government said on Sunday. The fire broke out on Saturday in a room at the intensive care unit of the Piatra Neamt county hospital in northeastern Romania and spread to an adjoining room. Six other intubated Covid-19 patients were injured and were transferred to another hospital. The doctor on call, who sustained severe burns as he tried to rescue the patients from the flames was flown to a specialised hospital in Belgium early on Sunday. The government said public health inspectors and the agency for emergency situations would check the conditions under which medical equipment was operating in all intensive care units from Monday. Prosecutors said an investigation into what triggered Saturday’s fire was underway. Nearly 13,000 Covid-19 patients were in hospital across Romania as of Sunday, including 1,169 in intensive care units. The country has reported 360,281 coronavirus cases since February and 8,926 deaths. Even before the pandemic, Romania’s health care system had been under pressure, dogged by corruption, inefficiencies and politicised management. Romania has one of the European Union’s least developed healthcare infrastructures.

China

The Chinese city of Jinan said over the weekend it had found coronavirus on beef and tripe and their packaging from Brazil, Bolivia and New Zealand, while two other provincial capitals detected it on packaging on pork from Argentina. China is ramping up testing on frozen foods after repeatedly detecting the virus on imported products, triggering disrupting import bans, even as the World Health Organisation says the risk of catching Covid-19 from frozen food is low. In Jinan, the goods involved were imported by a unit of Guotai International Group, and Shanghai Zhongli Development Trade, the city’s municipal health commission said late on Saturday. They entered through ports in Shanghai, it said, without naming the companies that shipped the products to China. More than 7,500 people who may have been exposed tested negative for coronavirus, it said. China, the world’s top beef buyer, last week found coronavirus on the packaging of Argentinian beef in Shandong and Jiangsu, and on the packaging of Brazilian beef in Wuhan. Separately, the city of Baotou in China’s Inner Mongolia region said it had disinfected some products and vehicles at a company after an asymptomatic coronavirus case in the northern city of Tianjin came into contact with a batch of frozen pork from France. It was not clear if authorities suspected the person had infected the meat or the other way around. Nucleic acid tests on 115 people came back negative, authorities said.

South Korea

South Korea reported 208 new coronavirus cases as of Saturday midnight, marking the eight straight day of triple-digit increases, the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said on Sunday. That was slightly higher than the previous day’s 205 new infections and the highest since early September. Of the cases, 176 were domestically transmitted and 32 imported. Nearly 70 per cent of the locally transmitted cases were from Seoul and Gyeonggi province, a densely populated area near the capital. On Saturday, president Moon Jae-in urged authorities and local governments to raise their awareness of the spread of the coronavirus, reinforcing thorough supervision of safety guidelines such as mandatory mask wearing. South Korea began fining people who fail to wear masks in public on Friday, as the nation’s daily infections continued to creep higher. The latest tally takes the country’s total infections to 28,546, with 493 deaths, according to the KDCA.

Iran

New coronavirus infections in Iran have risen by 12,543 in the past 24 hours, a record high, taking the cumulative total to 762,068, the health ministry said on Sunday.Ministry spokeswoman Sima Sadat Lari told state TV that 459 people had died in the past 24 hours, pushing the death toll in the Middle East’s worst-hit country to 41,493. – Reuters, Bloomberg, PA