Coronavirus latest: WHO launches panel to review international COVID-19 response

• WHO sets up independent review panel
• Nearly 5 million people under renewed lockdown in Melbourne, Australia
• Coronavirus cases in the US reach 3 million amid world record daily increase
• More than 12 million COVID-19 cases and over 542,000 deaths worldwide

All updates in Universal Coordinated Time (UTC/GMT)

12:50 Indonesia reported its biggest daily rise in infections, following an outbreak at a military training center in West Java.

Nearly half of the 2,567 new cases were linked to the outbreak. Health ministry official Achmad Yurianto told reporters that a significant new cluster had emerged at the center, where 1,262 cadets tested positive for the virus. 

“We implore the people to stay calm, not panic, because it’s being taken care of professionally according to international standards,” he said. 

Over 13,000 people showing acute symptoms were also under close medical observation, but had yet to be tested, while another 38,498 were being monitored for having come in contact with the virus, said Yurianto. 

The world’s fourth most populous country, with nearly 268 million residents, has recorded just 70,736 cases and over 3,400 deaths since the start of the pandemic. The health ministry also reported 58 new deaths on Thursday. 

However, experts have suggested that the actual number of cases and death toll could be much higher, although the government denies this.

Partial data for 20 of Indonesia’s 35 provinces, gathered from local governments’ websites, showed that there were a further 6,847 deaths of people who had not been tested but displayed severe symptoms. Untested patients are not counted in the official coronavirus death toll in Indonesia.

12:25 The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Thursday it was setting up an independent panel to examine both its own and world governments’ response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The panel will be headed by former Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark, who will both also choose its members, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a virtual meeting with representatives of WHO’s 194 member states.

“This is a time for self-reflection,” Tedros said, adding that “Through you, the world will understand the truth of what happened and also the solutions to build our future better as one humanity.”

The WHO itself has come under criticism for its handing of the crisis, notably from the US. WHO member states had also called unanimously for a review of the global response to the pandemic in May, Tedros said.

11:40 Pakistan is set to open its educational institutions from September 15, the government has announced, as the number of infections steadily declines.

Students would return to schools, colleges and universities if the current downward trend in cases continued, Education Minister Shafqat Mahmood said.

Students and teachers would have to follow strict “standard operating procedures to curtail the virus at campuses,” the minister told reporters at a briefing in Islamabad.

Pakistan ordered a nationwide lockdown in March and shut all of its educational institutions. Plans to hold classes online failed to substantially materialize due to a lack of internet in the country’s conflict zones.

09:15 Some 5 million people in Australia’s second-largest city, Melbourne, went into new coronavirus lockdown on Thursday, just weeks after a first set of restrictions ended.

Residents in the metropolitan region are now allowed to leave the house only for work, outside sport, going to the doctor and to buy essential groceries. Schools have once more been closed.

The new restrictions were imposed after authorities in the state of Victoria, where Melbourne is situated, reported 191 new cases of the coronavirus between Monday and Tuesday, the biggest spike there since the pandemic began. Nine inner-city public housing towers in Melbourne were put under separate lockdown in recent days after a cluster of cases was discovered.

Ahead of the lockdown, supermarket shelves were stripped bare of many essential items. The largest supermarket chain says it has put buying limits on items such as pasta, vegetables and sugar.

So far some 9,000 cases of infection have been confirmed in the country, with 106 people dying of COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

08:00 Twenty-six pubs in Ireland face potential prosecution and the risk of losing their licenses over breaches of health protocols aimed at stemming the spread of the virus following the country’s reopening of the sector, Irish police said. The number represents 1% of the 2,785 premises in the country.

Examples of violations include instances where customers were consuming alcohol but not food, and no evidence of receipts to show that food had been sold.

Authorities also noted a lack of adherence to health protocols, such as allowing large groups to sit at one table, little or no social distancing, no advisory signs and no coronavirus contact tracing information from customers being recorded.

Irish Prime Minister Micheal Martin warned earlier this week that initial plans to fully reopen pubs on July 20 could be scuppered after “very worrying” scenes of packed crowds of drinkers outside some bars.

07:44 In Spain’s northeastern region of Catalonia, an order making face masks mandatory in public went into force on Thursday, with those violating the regulation facing fines of €100 ($113). The order was announced on Wednesday after more than 200,000 people in the Segria area were placed under lockdown following a number of coronavirus outbreaks there.

Catalonia has seen the biggest increase in confirmed new cases of any region in Spain since a nationwide lockdown was lifted in mid-June. 

Masks are mandatory across all of Spain in shared indoor spaces and outdoors as well when 1.5 meters (5 feet) of physical distance cannot be maintained, but Catalonia is the first region to make the wearing of masks compulsory in all situations for people over six years of age regardless of distance. Shortly afterward, the Basque town of Ordizia also imposed a similar regulation after a cluster of nearly 50 cases was discovered there.

Spain has been one of the worst-hit European countries, with nearly 270,000 infections and more than 28,000 deaths.

07:15 Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has blocked measures for indigenous communities that would have meant the federal government had to provide drinking water, disinfectants and a guarantee of hospital beds during the pandemic.

Bolsonaro’s office said the measures, approved by Congress, were “against the public interest” and “unconstitutional,” because they create additional costs for the federal government without new sources of revenue to cover them. Therefore the president vetoed the provisions.

Brazil’s indigenous population of some 850,000 is more at risk of contracting COVID-19 as they live in remote areas with little access to health care. In addition, their communal lifestyle renders social distancing impossible.

Brazil’s indigenous communities face a greater risk of contracting COVID-19

“The vetoes deny the minimum necessary for the survival of these communities,” Brazilian indigenous advocacy group Instituto Socioambiental (ISA) said in a statement. “The vetoes reveal that the president’s plan is not to have a plan.”

The president also blocked funding for the states and local governments with emergency plans for indigenous areas, as well as measures to help give them more information on the novel virus.

Bolsonaro, meanwhile, said he was doing well after testing positive for COVID-19.

07:00 German exports continue to suffer severely under the effects of the coronavirus pandemic, as many trading partners have taken massive economic hits amid the crisis. Exports in May were 29.7% lower than the same month a year ago, according to figures released by the Federal Statistical Office on Thursday.

However, exports were up 9% on the previous month, marking the possible beginning of a recovery. April itself saw a fall of 24% in comparison with the month before, the biggest slump since August 1990.

Imports in May were 3.5% higher than in April, but still 21.7% lower than in May 2019. The European Commission has predicted a drop of 6.3% in Germany’s GDP for this year, the biggest fall in the post-war era. 

06:30 India has reported almost 25,000 new cases while 487 more people have died of COVID-19. The new cases announced by the Health Ministry mean the country has recorded a total of 767,296 infections, the third most reported by any country in the world.

The uptick in cases comes as the Institute of Mathematical Sciences in Chennai said its calculated transmission rate for the coronavirus rose during the first week of July to 1.19 after gradually falling from a peak of 1.83 in March. A transmission rate is the number of people that are infected, on average, from a single case.

Infection numbers have soared in India since the government eased lockdown restrictions and a vast increase in testing was implemented. The country is now performing some 200,000 tests on a daily basis, compared to just a few hundred a day in March.

05:48 Tokyo has registered its highest daily increase in cases since the start of the outbreak with 224 new infections, Japan’s national broadcaster NHK reported.

The figure surpasses Tokyo’s previous high of 206 cases reported on April 17.

The government ended a state of emergency at the end of May and fears are increasing over a second wave of infections, particularly in light of the new numbers.

Nationwide, Japan has so far reported a total of 21,125 cases, including 712 on a cruise ship quarantined near Tokyo in February. The death toll in the country currently stands at 995.

Tokyo logged it’s highest daily jump in cases since the start of the pandemic

04:49 The popular Indonesian resort island of Bali, famous for its white sand beaches, has reopened after a three-month lockdown. Locals and stranded foreigners were allowed to resume public activities as the island prepares to allow foreign arrivals again starting in September.

Busy beaches and streets on the Southeast Asian island were emptied in early April, with the exception of special patrols responsible for enforcing coronavirus health protocols. Authorities closed bars, shops, sit-down restaurants, public swimming pools and the local airport on the island of 4 million residents. 

The local government has already started lifting restrictions, however Bali Governor I Wayan Koster said tourists will still face strict rules in hotels, restaurants and on beaches.

In a news conference ahead of the opening, Koster said Bali would gradually reopen local places to people currently on the island. Arrivals from the rest of Indonesia will be welcome starting on July 31. Bali will allow foreign arrivals from September 11.

Tourism is the main source of income for the predominantly Hindu island in the mostly Muslim nation.

Bali has reported over 1,900 coronavirus infections, including 25 deaths. Indonesia has confirmed more than 68,000 cases and 3,359 fatalities, more than any other Southeast Asian country.

03:36 Germany’s public health agency the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) has said the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in Germany has risen by 442 to 197,783.

The RKI also reported that the death toll was up by 12 at 9,048.

02:38 The US state of Texas has resumed executions after a five-month pause due to the pandemic. Inmate Billy Joe Wardlow was put to death by lethal injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Wardlow became the first inmate to executed since February 6 – before the pandemic and the second in the US since the nation began reopening following pandemic-related shutdowns.

The execution went ahead with hygiene measures in place. Execution witnesses on Wednesday were given masks and gloves. All prison officers and officials wore masks.

The US Supreme Court declined to stop the 45-year-old man’s execution for the crime he committed in 1993.

02:00 The US recorded more than 59,000 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday, making it the biggest increase ever reported by a country in a single day, according to a Reuters tally.

There were nearly 10,000 new cases in Florida, nearly 9,000 in Texas and 7,800 in California.

Deaths per day in the US also rose to the highest levels since early June, to more than 900.

The issue of whether to wear a mask has now become a political one

Late on Wednesday, the total number of cases in the US crossed the grim milestone of 3 million cases.

Figures from the Johns Hopkins University also show a record for Tuesday.

Despite the rise in infections and deaths, US President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to withhold federal funding if school districts did not bring their students back into the classroom in the fall.

01:03 Mexico has posted a record for new coronavirus cases reported on a single day, with 6,995 cases. Its total tally of infections now stands at 275,003, health ministry data showed.

The jump was recorded as Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met with US President Donald Trump to mark the launch of the new North American trade agreement.

00:30 The number of confirmed cases in Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, has reached 30,000, said the country’s disease control center.

Latest figures put the country’s death toll at 684.

So far, the country’s 200 million inhabitants have, like many other African nations, avoided the high death rates of the US, Brazil and parts of Europe.

But health experts fear a lack of reliable data means the virus could be spreading unchecked in Africa.

00:01 President Donald Trump’s rally and other events in Tulsa have “likely” contributed to the spike in the county’s caseload, a local public health official has told reporters. 

“In the past few days we’ve had almost 500 cases and we knew we had several large events a little over two weeks ago,” Bruce Dart, director of the Tulsa City-County Health Department, said on being asked about Trump’s campaign and the protests over racial injustice. 

“So I guess we just connect the dots.”

Trump held his first campaign rally in Tulsa last month amid a surge in coronavirus infections in the nation. 

The event which attracted thousands of supporters, who were not required to wear a mask, came under criticism from public health experts.

Tulsa has reported over 4,500 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 72 deaths.

00:00 Catch up on Wednesday’s coronavirus news here: Coronavirus latest: US tops 3 million coronavirus cases

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.

dvv, kmm/rc (dpa, AP, AFP, Reuters)

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