Coronavirus latest: California halts reopening as cases surge

– California begins shutting down again as cases surge

– Deaths due to malaria, TB, HIV could spike, says study

– The World Health Organization warns pandemic has the potential to get far worse

All updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT) 

01:45 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, who tested positive for coronavirus a week ago, said he would be taking a new test on Tuesday because he is fed up with being in quarantine.

In an interview with CNN Brazil, he said that he was feeling well, had no trouble breathing and hadn’t lost his sense of taste. He said that the results of the test “should be out in a few hours, and I will wait quite anxiously because I can’t stand this routine of staying at home. It’s horrible.”

Read more: Schadenfreude in Brazil as Jair Bolsonaro gets coronavirus

During his weekly Facebook Live video, he told followers that he had been taking hydroxychloroquine everyday, after he started feeling unwell. The malaria drug has been pushed as a cure in some countries, but its effectiveness has not been proven.

Brazil is the second-worst affected country by COVID-19, after the US. The country has seen 1,884,967 cases, with 72,833 deaths, as of Monday. Bolsonaro has been criticized for downplaying the effects of the virus.

01:03 Singapore’s economy shrunk into recession during the second quarter of 2020, as growth fell by 41.2% quarter-on-quarter. The country is facing its biggest economic slump ever this year. Virus-related lockdown measures have severely impacted its trade-reliant economy.

Data from Singapore’s Ministry of Trade and Industry showed that the GDP fell 12.6% on a year-on-year basis. The full year GDP is expected to be in the range of -7% to -4%.

The government has pumped in $72 billion into the economy as a stimulus, to blunt the effect of the pandemic.

00:35 The number of deportations of rejected asylum seekers in Germany fell dramatically during the coronavirus pandemic, the German Interior Ministry has said.

Nevertheless, “numerous states continue to refuse the entry of foreign nationals or restrict it to a few essential cases,” the ministry told newspapers of the German Funke Media Group.  

The number of repatriations in the first five months of the pandemic dropped from 10, 951 to 5,022 compared with the same period from the previous year. In May there had been only about 150 repatriations.

Read more: Germany warns of ‘wave of refugees’ unless aid budget increased

The total number of people obligated to leave Germany increased from 245,597 to 266,605 within a single year (as of the end of May 2020).

“In view of the constantly growing number of asylum seekers, federal states should also resume and intensify the deportation of foreigners who are obliged to leave the country,” conservative CDU politician Armin Schuster told Funke.

Bavarian state Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said that it was important to him “that we also return to normality in deportations in line with the decrease in infection figures.”

Read more: Germany seeks reform of EU asylum

00:28 A study published in the Lancet Global Health journal predicted that lower and middle income nations could see a rise in deaths from HIV, tuberculosis and malaria amid the coronavirus pandemic. The global fight against COVID-19 is affecting already weak healthcare systems and causing severe disruptions.

The study, by the Imperial College London, said deaths from the three diseases could rise by as much as 10%, 20% and 36% respectively. The findings predicted that the greatest impact on HIV would be from interruption to supplies of the antiretroviral AIDS drugs taken by many patients to keep the disease in check.

“In countries with a high malaria burden and large HIV and TB epidemics, even short-term disruptions could have devastating consequences for the millions of people who depend on programmes to control and treat these diseases,” said Timothy Hallett, a professor who co-led the study. He added that the effects could be mitigated if the countries worked to maintain core health services, and launched preventive measures against the diseases.

00:05 California governor Gavin Newsom ordered a retreat from the state’s reopening amid a surge in cases. Restaurants, bars, wineries, movie theaters and zoos were asked to halt indoor operations statewide. Churches, salons and gyms have been closed in the hardest-hit counties.

On Monday, California’s two largest school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, announced that they would not be resuming in-person classes when schools reopen during the fall.

The state was the first in the US to issue a mandatory stay-at-home order. Most businesses were allowed to reopen in May, but a surge in cases and hospitalizations resulted in restrictions being reimposed. Newsom has described his flexibility in opening and closing businesses as a “dimmer switch.”

California has reported around 329,100 cases and more than 7,000 deaths. Cases have spiked by 47% during the last two weeks, with a 28% increase in hospitalizations.

00:00 Catch up on yesterday’s coronavirus news here

In reporting on the coronavirus pandemic, unless otherwise specified, DW uses figures provided by the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) Coronavirus Resource Center in the United States. JHU updates figures in real-time, collating data from world health organizations, state and national governments, and other public official sources, all of whom have their own systems for compiling information.

Germany’s national statistics are compiled by its public health agency, the Robert Koch Institute (RKI). These figures depend on data transmission from state and local levels and are updated around once a day, which can lead to deviation from JHU.

tg,mvb/dr  (AP, AFP, Reuters, dpa)

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