Duterte accuses doctors of seeking ‘revolution’

President Rodrigo Duterte announced late on Sunday a two-week lockdown in and around Manila, which accounts for two-thirds of the country’s economic output.

Public transport has been shut and working from home instituted where possible, with only one person per household allowed out for essential goods.

The Philippines imposed one the world’s strictest and longest lockdowns in and around the capital, running from mid-March to the end of May, which brought the economy to its knees in the first half.

03:13

Hundreds stranded at Manila airport as Philippines returns to Covid-19 lockdown

Hundreds stranded at Manila airport as Philippines returns to Covid-19 lockdown

India reported 904 deaths over the course of 24 hours, as well as 56,282 new infections, bringing its total close to 2 million. The Health Ministry said total fatalities were 40,699, with 20,000 of those in the past 30 days.

The ministry also said the recovery rate has improved to 67 per cent from 63 per cent over the last 14 days. Nearly 600,000 patients are still undergoing treatment. The case fatality rate stands at 2.09 per cent. Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are the worst-hit Indian states.

A fire killed eight coronavirus patients at a hospital in western India on Thursday, officials said.

Firefighters and 15 fire engines contained the fire to the intensive care unit at Shrey Hospital and it was extinguished in half an hour, fire officer Yusuf Khan said.

Thirty-five patients were shifted to other hospitals, he said.

Rajiv Kumar Gupta, a Gujarat state government official, told reporters that an electrical short-circuit appeared to be the cause of the fire in the city of Ahmedabad. He also said one paramedic was being treated for burns received while trying to douse the flames.

Shops were boarded shut and streets were deserted in the city of about 5 million people, the capital of Victoria state, which reported 471 new Covid-19 cases and eight deaths in the past 24 hours.

State of disaster and curfew declared in Australia’s virus-hit Victoria

Australia has now recorded about 20,000 Covid-19 cases and 255 fatalities, still far fewer than many other developed nations.

But the Victorian outbreak threatens to ruin that record and spill into other states such as Queensland where the virus has been all but eliminated.

“We’ve flatted that curve once, we’ll flatten that curve again,” Health Minister Greg Hunt told reporters.

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews urged Melbourne residents, who have already endured weeks of less severe lockdown, to stay calm and abstain from panic buying amid a surge in demand at supermarkets.

“There’s no need for people to be trying to stockpile months and months of food,” Andrews told reporters in Melbourne.

Speaking at a press conference in Hiroshima, Abe said there had been far fewer serious and fatal cases recently compared to when the previous state of emergency was declared in April, and that hospitals across the country were better equipped to treat patients.

“The aim is to prevent the spread of infections as much as possible while also keeping social and economic activity going,” he said. “It’s a very difficult task, but we will act quickly and as necessary to protect lives and livelihoods while avoiding a situation where another state of emergency is needed.”

Okinawa governor declares new state of emergency

After getting the outbreak under some degree of control in May, Japan has endured a sharp rise in cases in recent weeks especially in urban centres such as Tokyo and Osaka. On Wednesday 1,355 cases were reported across the country, according to a tally by Kyodo News.

There are concerns next week’s Bon summer holiday could cause another spike in infections as the period usually sees airports, highways and bullet trains full as Japanese visit relatives in the regions or go on holiday.

Abe called on the public to take precautions against spreading the coronavirus, such as avoiding the “three Cs” – closed spaces, crowded places and close-contact settings – should they choose to travel next week.

Aggressive contact-tracing, targeted testing and strict quarantining had helped Vietnam halt an earlier contagion, but it is now racing to control infections in the central city and beyond after a new outbreak ended a run of more than three months without domestic transmission.

Da Nang’s Tien Son Sports Palace will from Saturday be used to treat an overflow of infected patients should the city’s hospitals become overwhelmed, said the company behind the project, Sun Group.

Danang has reported more than 200 cases since the virus reappeared there on July 25. If infection numbers stabilise, the facility would be used to isolate people who were in direct contact with a positive case, as part of Vietnam’s centralised quarantine programme, Sun Group said.

The health ministry reported 34 new infections on Thursday, taking Vietnam’s total cases to 747, with 10 deaths.

The ministry has sent a task force of medical experts and more than 1,000 health workers to Da Nang, while Cuba has also dispatched a medical team to Vietnam to assist.

Vietnam cracks down on illegal entry from China as virus cases rise

Testing for all workers in the facilities will be completed by tomorrow, the health ministry said in a statement on Thursday. Several standalone blocks that serve as quarantine facilities are the exception and workers there will be tested when their isolation ends, it said.

The government also hinted at changes to its approach as it gradually looks to reopen its borders. It’s possible that travellers from countries with low levels of coronavirus cases, such as Malaysia, may have to isolate for just seven days, instead of the current 14 days, Kenneth Mak, the health ministry’s director of medical services, said.

02:52

Migrant workers in Singapore fear job loss after coronavirus quarantine ends

Migrant workers in Singapore fear job loss after coronavirus quarantine ends

Citizens and permanent residents who leave Singapore under so-called “permitted travel agreements” and green lanes will receive government subsidies to cover medical bills if they require hospitalisation for Covid-19.

That’s in contrast with the current policy, where anyone who left the city state after March 27 would be liable to pay their own medical bills if they tested positive for the virus.

“Keeping the borders sealed is not a sustainable strategy,” said health minister Gan Kim Yong, adding that the country was wary of the uptick in cases in areas such as Hong Kong and Vietnam.

In Myanmar, a court on Thursday sentenced the Canadian pastor of an evangelical church to three months’ imprisonment after finding him guilty of violating a law intended to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Myanmar-born David Lah was charged with flouting a ban on large gatherings by holding a religious meeting in Yangon on April 7.

Lah’s lawyer, Aung Kyi Win, said the court had found his client guilty of violating an article in the Natural Disaster Management Law because he failed to comply with a directive against gatherings.

The judge credited Lah with time served since he was jailed in May, so it appears he may be released within a couple of weeks.

WHO warns there may never be a coronavirus ‘silver bullet’

Evidence of Lah’s actions came from video of the event that was posted on social media accounts controlled by him. Videos showed him appearing to violate the ban, which took effect in mid-March, on other occasions as well.

The Toronto-based Lah had pleaded not guilty last month but has not commented publicly on his case.

In addition to gatherings, Lah ignited public outrage for his statements in the online videos of his sermons. One video showed him claiming that Christians were immune from contracting the coronavirus.

“I can guarantee if your church is walking the true path, and you have the whole of Christ in your heart, you will not get the disease,” he said in one such remark.

Additional reporting by Reuters, Kyodo, Agence France-Presse