Thursday, 3 Septemeber
BRIEF – ME! – DAILY NEWS BRIEFING
Thursday 3 Septemeber 2020 News Briefing – Today’s headlines are dominated by the global Coronavirus Pandemic. As of 6:30 am (GMT), these are the global active numbers.
Global COVID-19 UPDATE
Coronavirus Cases: 26,183,883
Deaths: 867,370
Recovered: 18,447,851
- Mass weekly Covid-19 testing of the population to be trialled in England.
- France nears all-time high new Covid-19 infections, and rise in hospitalisations.
- Moria refugee camp under quarantine after the coronavirus.
- Virus exposes health gap in Tunisia as doctors deplore lack of equipment.
- Over 50,000 workers in Japan dismissed due to pandemic.
- Don’t fast-track a Covid-19 vaccine — “follow the process,” expert warns.
Mass weekly Covid-19 testing of the population to be trialled in England
The Guardian says the government is to trial routine weekly Covid-19 testing of the population as part of preparations to head off a possible winter second wave.
Matt Hancock said the government will commit an extra £500m to scale up testing capacity and start community pilots trialling the effectiveness of repeat testing in schools and colleges, as well as in the population as a whole. It will also ramp up the trials of a new test kit that claims it can give results in 20 minutes.
Read the full story on The Guardian
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France nears all-time high new Covid-19 infections, and rise in hospitalisations
France24 says France reported 7,017 new confirmed cases on Wednesday, up from Tuesday 4,982 figure, and the third time since the outbreak that the daily toll has been above 7,000. The number of patients hospitalised and in intensive care is also on the rise.
“The virus keeps spreading in the country,” French health authorities said in a statement, adding roughly a fifth of France’s administrative directs were affected by an “active circulation of the disease.”
Read the full story on France24
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Moria refugee camp under quarantine after Covid-19 case
Aljazeera says the Moria refugee camp on the island of Lesbos is under quarantine after the confirmation of the first coronavirus infection in the notoriously overcrowded facility.
The Ministry of Migration and Asylum said in a statement on Wednesday that a Somali refugee, 40, had tested positive and was being treated at a hospital in Mytilene, the main town of the island.
Read the full story on Aljazeera
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Virus exposes health gap in Tunisia as doctors deplore lack of equipment
Arab News says the coronavirus pandemic has put the spotlight on struggling health services in southeast Tunisia, with residents and doctors in a Covid-19 hotspot deploring a lack of equipment and medics.
The country has managed to contain its outbreak by moving early and imposing strict measures in March, but cases have been on the rise since it reopened its borders on June 27.
Read the full story on Arab News
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Over 50,000 workers in Japan dismissed due to pandemic
Japan Times says the number of people dismissed from their jobs due to the impact of the pandemic totalled 50,326 in Japan, the government said on Tuesday.
The number of such people – mainly so-called non-regular workers, a category that includes those with low-paying, part-time jobs – grew by more than 10,000 every month between May and July, and by 9,000 in August, according to a labour ministry survey.
There is likely to be more people dismissed from work due to the pandemic as the survey did not cover the whole of the employment situation in the country.
Read the full story on Japan Times
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Don’t fast-track a Covid-19 vaccine — “follow the process,” expert warns
CNN says Dr Peter Hotez, the dean of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine has listed a dozen reasons why an emergency use authorisation (EUA) on a potential Covid-19 vaccine may be a bad idea.
“We haven’t done this before for a vaccine, or at least a major vaccine released to a large segment of the population,” he tweeted, adding it’s been for “technicalities, but nothing like this.”
“How can you justify a substandard or lesser review for something that would be injected in tens of millions, maybe hundreds of millions of Americans?” he asked. “I understand EUAs for ventilators, or PPE, etc, but not for a widely administered vaccine.”
Read the full story on CNN
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A quick look at the other top headlines
Black man dies after being restrained by police in New York
NBC News says a naked Black man who told Rochester, New York, police after his brother called 911 that he had Covid-19 was restrained with handcuffs and a spit hood, and his head was forced into the asphalt before he went limp, according to part of police video released by his family Wednesday.
Belarusian journalist face charges for covering the protests
Euronews says dozens of journalists gathered Wednesday outside a police station in the capital of Belarus to protest the detention of colleagues covering a demonstration against the nation’s authoritarian president and an election the opposition sees as rigged.
Former Malian President Keita hospitalised in a private clinic
Africanews says not long after being released from the 10-day detention imposed by the military coup leaders, the National Committee for the Salvation of the People, the ousted Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was hospitalised late Tuesday at a private clinic in Bamako, Mali.
Macron backs Iraq ‘sovereignty’ on first Baghdad visit
Aljazeera says French President Emmanuel Macron has pledged support for Iraq and said the main challenges facing the country are the Islamic State of Iraq and the ISIL group fighters and foreign interference in its affairs.
Tibetan soldier’s death near tense India-China border sheds light on covert unit
CNA says the death of a Tibetan member of an Indian special forces unit in a mine blast near the site of a border flare-up with Chinese troops has offered a rare glimpse into a little-known group of elite, high-altitude warriors.
