Donald Trump has announced his daily US coronavirus briefings will resume and that wearing face masks were “patriotic” as European leaders agreed a huge coronavirus rescue plan and Australia announced it was scaling back economic support as one of its states battles a growing Covid-19 outbreak.
Having almost entirely avoided wearing a mask in public during the pandemic, the US president tweeted that “many people say it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance”. The post came with a photo of the president in a mask, possibly taken at his visit about 10 days ago to the Walter Reed military hospital outside Washington.
Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can’t socially distance. There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President! pic.twitter.com/iQOd1whktN
July 20, 2020
Americans have been told for more than three months by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that face coverings would help to limit their risk of contracting the virus.
Trump also flagged a return to his daily coronavirus briefings, which stopped abruptly in April after he was widely mocked for suggesting injecting bleach could be a potential way of defeating the virus. His comments forced the British-based maker of Dettol and Lysol to issue a statement that “under no circumstances” should people follow the president’s suggestion.
Talking to reporters in the Oval office on Monday the president pointed to the ratings his “very successful” briefings had received on TV.
“I was doing them and we had a lot of people watching, record numbers watching in the history of cable television – television, there’s never been anything like it. And we were doing very well, and I thought it would be sort of, automatic and a lot of positive things were happening and frankly, a lot of the country is doing well,” he said.
The US has more than 3.8m confirmed Covid-19 cases, after another 61,761 were announced on Monday, according to a tally by Reuters. There have been nearly 141,000 deaths. California recorded its biggest daily rise of 11,800 cases.
In Europe, marathon late-night talks delivered a deal on a €750bn Covid-19 recovery plan. EU leaders shifted their positions on Monday evening in what the French president, Emmanuel Macron, described as a new “spirit of compromise”. Just before 5am UK time, Charles Michel, president of the European Council, tweeted “deal!”.
Meanwhile, Australia’s outbreak continued to grow as the southern state of Victoria reported more than 370 new cases and three deaths. It will be compulsory for residents of Melbourne and its the adjacent Mitchell shire to wear face coverings from 11.59pm on Wednesday. Both areas were returned to a six-week lockdown after the current outbreak grew significantly, following community transmission linked to returned travellers in hotel quarantine.
Meanwhile, Australia’s prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced an extension of support payments for those whose jobs have been affected by the Covid-19 crisis, but said the payments themselves will be smaller.
“It has to scale down and work ourselves off these supports because they’re not enduring, they cannot be permanent, they were never designed to be permanent,” Morrison said.
The World Health Organization has warned that South Africa’s growing Covid-19 crisis could be a “precursor” for outbreaks elsewhere on the continent. South Africa has 373,000 cases – around half the continent’s cases.
“I am very concerned right now that we are beginning to see an acceleration of disease in Africa,” said the WHO’s emergencies chief Michael Ryan.
“South Africa may unfortunately be a precursor, it may be a warning for what will happen in the rest of Africa.”
With more than 15,000 deaths and close to 725,000 cases, the continent remains the world’s second least affected after Oceania. While South Africa’s numbers were by far the largest, they had “only” increased by 30% in the past week, Ryan said. By comparison, numbers in Kenya had increased by 31%, in Madagascar by 50%, in Zambia by 57% and in Namibia by 69%, he pointed out.
In other coronavirus news:
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Japan is expected to announce 230 new cases in Tokyo.
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A coronavirus vaccine developed by Oxford University in the UK appeared to be safe and prompt an immune response, raising hopes about the distribution of a vaccine in the coming months.
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Stock markets in Asia rose on the hopes of a vaccine and an EU recovery deal. In the US, Wall Street pushed the Nasdaq 2.5% higher to a record 10,767.09 points at the close on Monday night.
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Brazil passed 80,000 deaths as two more ministers tested positive for coronavirus.
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The hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia will begin on 29 July. The drastically scaled back event will include only around 1,000 Muslim pilgrims due to the pandemic.
source https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/global-report-trump-says-masks-patriotic-as-eu-leaders-agree-deal
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