(Reuters) – Prime Minister Boris Johnson ordered England back into a national lockdown after the United Kingdom passed the milestone of one million COVID-19 cases and a second wave of infections threatened to overwhelm the health service.
DEATHS AND INFECTIONS
– For an interactive graphic tracking the global spread of COVID-19, open https://graphics.reuters.com/world-coronavirus-tracker-and-maps/ in an external browser.
– Eikon users, see COVID-19: MacroVitals https://apac1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/cms/?navid=1592404098 for a case tracker and summary of news.
EUROPE
– Portugal’s government on Saturday announced new lockdown restrictions from Nov. 4 for most of the country, telling people to stay at home except for outings for work, school or shopping, and ordering companies to switch to remote working.
– Austria on Saturday announced a nighttime curfew and the closure of cafes, bars and restaurants to all but take-away service as a surge in infections threatens to overwhelm its hospitals.
– Over a million Slovaks took a coronavirus swab on Saturday as the country launched a huge logistical operation to test most of its population over the weekend to reverse a rise in the pandemic.
AMERICAS
– Most people arriving in New York state must quarantine for at least three full days before taking a coronavirus test, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Saturday as he overhauled one of the strictest quarantine regimes for travelers in the United States. If that test comes back negative, the traveler can leave quarantine.
ASIA-PACIFIC
– Australia recorded no new daily coronavirus community infections on Sunday for the first time in nearly five months, health officials said, paving the way for further easing of social distancing restrictions.
– The Tokyo International Film Festival kicked off on Saturday with live screenings and a host of coronavirus prevention measures to ensure the show could go on.
MIDDLE EAST AND AFRICA
– Weddings, wakes and conferences will be banned in the Iranian capital until further notice as the Middle East’s hardest-hit nation battles a third wave of COVID-19, police said on Saturday.
ECONOMIC IMPACT
– Britain’s government will extend by a month its costly coronavirus wage subsidies to ensure workers who are temporarily laid off receive 80% of their pay, Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday as he announced a new England-wide lockdown.
– The Dutch government on Saturday put on hold its plan to bail out KLM, the Dutch arm of Air France, after pilots rejected a wage-freeze until 2025, Finance Minister Wopke Hoekstra said.
– Amazon is withdrawing advertising for pre-Black Friday discounts in France, after the government said the campaign was unfair to small shops at time when a coronavirus lockdown has forced them to close.
(Compiled by Frances Kerry)
