This is not directly coronavirus related, but both President Trump and Joe Biden will have their microphones muted for parts of their final debate on Thursday to allow each presidential candidate a block of uninterrupted time to speak. Hopefully this will garner some clear answers on coronavirus.
The first debate was dominated by interruptions from President Trump. Photograph: Brian Snyder/Reuters
The 90-minute debate will be divided into six 15-minute segments, with each candidate granted two minutes to deliver uninterrupted remarks before proceeding to an open debate.
The non-partisan Commission on Presidential Debates on Monday announced that “in order to enforce this agreed upon rule, the only candidate whose microphone will be open during these two-minute periods is the candidate who has the floor under the rules”. Both mics will be unmuted for open discussion.
Next time you dine out with a friend, you may want to think carefully about where you sit in relation to your companion/s, reports Japan’s Asahi Shimbun.
It says simulations by the world’s fastest super computer suggest you will be more exposed to droplets when being spoken to if you sit side-by-side, rather than if you sit opposite your companion ... by a factor of five.
The study looked at three sitting scenarios: side-by-side, opposite and diagonally opposite. It did this by simulating the spread of droplets between four people sitting at two joined tables with one person talking to the person adjacent to them while looking at their face for about a minute. Each table measured 60cm square.
Sitting side-by-side gives diners the biggest chance of being in droplet range. The next was sitting opposite, but the best place to sit was diagonally opposite to minimise droplets.
Just applying that to my own scenario, I guess it also likely means that if you are dining out with someone from your own household and people from another household, it’s better for people you live with to be seated on the same side of the table, as you are less likely to transfer germs between households.
China has reported 19 new coronavirus cases for 19 October, up from 13 cases a day earlier, the health commission said on Tuesday. All of the new infections were imported. China also reported 24 new asymptomatic patients, compared with 33 a day earlier.
As of Monday, China had 85,704 confirmed coronavirus cases, the health authority said. The Covid-19 death toll remained unchanged at 4,634.
People walk in a shopping area of Beijing, China, 19 October 2020. Photograph: Wu Hong/EPA
Mexico’s health ministry on Monday reported 3,699 additional cases of coronavirus and 171 more deaths in the country, bringing the official number of cases to 854,926 and the death toll to 86,338. Health officials have said the real number of infected people is likely significantly higher than the confirmed cases.
Some good news from Australia – the state of Victoria, which has been subject to some form of stay-at-home order for more than 100 days, has recorded only one new case of coronavirus on Tuesday. The other key part of today’s news is that the rolling 7-day average for metropolitan Melbourne is down to 6.4, which is very close to the average of five that had been set as one of the measures to lift restrictions further on the regions road towards a “Covid normal”.
Yesterday there was 1 new case & the loss of 0 lives reported. 1 other case, who has a Vic address, is quarantining interstate having returned from OS. In Melb, 14 day average and cases with unknown source are down from yesterday. https://t.co/eTputEZdhspic.twitter.com/pNuSFOb32z
The neighbouring state of New South Wales, Australia’s most populous, has recorded two new locally acquired cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. Three people in hotel quarantine were also diagnosed with the virus.
You can stay up to date on all the news from Australia on our Guardian Australia live blog below:
Back on the European side of the Atlantic, and the Welsh government has mounted a staunch defence of the need for a nationwide lockdown as it announced “sharp and deep” measures, despite having the lowest rate of Covid-19 cases of the four UK nations.
The first minister, Mark Drakeford, insisted the two-week “firebreak” – under which schools, shops, pubs and hotels will close and citizens will be told to stay at home – was needed to prevent thousands more deaths and the NHS becoming overwhelmed.
The new restrictions mean businesses including pubs, hotels, gyms, hairdressers and non-essential shops will have to close from Friday evening and will remain shut until 9 November. People will not be allowed to attend Halloween or Bonfire Night celebrations or travel around or to Wales for the half-term school holiday.
Donald Trump has been holding another rally, this time in Arizona. I’ll bring you any salient coronavirus lines. So far he’s covered his standard lines. It comes after a day of further revelations over his continuing criticism of the US’s top epidemiologist, Dr Anthony Fauci.
President Donald Trump holds a rally in Arizona. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters
Trump attacked Fauci using a call with campaign staff on Monday to deride him as “a disaster” and to claim “people are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots” discuss ways to combat the coronavirus.
Fox News broadcast audio of Trump calling Fauci a “disaster” during a campaign call earlier today pic.twitter.com/aYaNzDr9uv
The president spoke one day after CBS’s 60 Minutes aired an interview with Fauci, in which the 79-year-old said he was “absolutely not” surprised Trump recently contracted the coronavirus himself, because he was holding crowded events with minimal social distancing and use of masks in the days before he developed symptoms.
Ireland has become the first European Union country to to re-enter lockdown, with the Taoiseach (prime minister), Micheál Martin, issuing a nationwide “stay at home”.
Measures coming into effect for six weeks from midnight on Wednesday and will see all non-essential retail businesses close and bars and restaurants limited to takeaway service only.
Martin said Ireland’s latest restrictions were “probably Europe’s strictest regime” but that “further action is now required”.
“Everyone in the country is being asked to stay at home,” Martin said in a televised national address.
We as a people, are much stronger than we realise. We are more resilient than we can imagine. These are the toughest of times, but the Irish people will persevere, and we will come through this, together. Ar Scáth a chéile a mhaireann na daoine #COVID19https://t.co/WF1jHfKqX8
Only essential workers will be “permitted to travel to work”, he said, and citizens will be allowed out to exercise only within 5km of home.
Schools and childcare facilities are to remain open “because we cannot and will not allow our children and young people’s futures to be another victim of this disease”.
A ban on visits between different households and indoor events will also be extended, although elite and professional level sports will be permitted to take place behind closed doors.
“If we pull together over the next six weeks, we will have the opportunity to celebrate Christmas in a meaningful way,” Martin said.
Health officials reported 1,031 new infections on Monday, bringing the total since the pandemic began to 50,993. The death toll remained unchanged at 1,852.
Ireland’s 14-day incidence rate per 100,000 population is 261, less than Britain’s, France’s and Spain’s, and around the middle of Europe’s table. But Ireland’s health service has little spare capacity, especially for intensive care.
The World Health Organization’s emergencies director, Michael Ryan, has linked soaring transmission rates in the northern hemisphere to the failure to quarantine people exposed to the virus.
He said if he could have one wish, it would be to ensure “every contact of a confirmed case is in quarantine for the appropriate period”.
“I do not believe that has occurred systematically, anywhere,” Ryan said, adding it was “a good part of the reason why we’re seeing such high numbers”.
Ryan said that about half of the 48 countries in the UN health agency’s European region had seen roughly 50% increases in cases within the past week – and hospitalisations and death rates were beginning to track those rises.
Michael Ryan says a lack of quarantining of all contacts of confirmed cases is a ‘good part of the reason’ we are seeing rising cases in the northern hemisphere. Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
Some moderately good news is that the average age of sufferers was now much younger, treatment has improved and those infected may have been exposed to lower doses of the virus because of physical distancing and mask wearing.
Worldwide cases of the virus passed 40 million on Monday.
The WHO says 42 potential vaccines are now being tested on humans, of which 10 have reached the third and final stage. A further 156 are being worked on in laboratories with a view to human testing.
But the WHO’s chief scientist, Soumya Swaminathan, said that while one or two trials may report data by the end of the year, most would start to do so in early 2021.
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, with me, Alison Rourke.
The World Health Organization’s emergencies director, Michael Ryan, has blamed soaring transmission rates in the northern hemisphere on a failure to enforce quarantines rigorously. He said the fact that self-isolation measures were not being enforced systematically was “a good part of the reason why we’re seeing such high numbers”.
It comes as Ireland announced a return to coronavirus lockdown, with the prime minister, Micheal Martin, issuing a nationwide “stay at home” order, but insisting schools will stay open. Measures coming into effect for six weeks from midnight on Wednesday will see all non-essential retail businesses close and bars and restaurants limited to takeaway or delivery service only. “Everyone in the country is being asked to stay at home,” Martin said in a televised national address.
In other coronavirus developments:
Trump says Americans ‘tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots’ discuss Covid. President once again attacked his top public health expert, using a call with campaign staff to call Anthony Fauci “a disaster” and to claim “people are tired of hearing Fauci and all these idiots” discuss ways to combat the coronavirus.
Belgium closed bars and restaurants on Monday for a month and has reinforced a curfew. Hospitalisations have risen 100% in the last week.
Wales is to go into a two-week “firebreak” lockdown, under which schools, shops, pubs and hotels will close and citizens will be told to stay at home. The government said it was needed to prevent thousands more deaths and the NHS becoming overwhelmed.
Covid vaccine will not be available in UK until spring, says Vallance. A vaccine against coronavirus will not eradicate the disease or be widely available before the spring, the UK government’s chief scientific adviser has cautioned, following reports that a jab could be available as early as the new year.
Iran on Monday announced 337 deaths from the coronavirus, a record high for a single day in the country hardest hit by the pandemic in the region.
In Poland the government said the national stadium would double as a field hospital to help ease the strain on overwhelmed health facilities. Around half the country is now designated as a coronavirus “red zone”.
Greater Manchester given midday deadline for tier 3 deal. The UK government has told Greater Manchester leaders that it will impose the country’s strictest coronavirus restrictions on nearly 3 million people if no deal is reached by midday on Tuesday, in a dramatic escalation of the standoff.
